<%£<<< C 
<2JCc c 

'<££r.c c 



" <£t«< c ^ .^ 

<g?f C <_ 

__<r<« <r_. ^E3 ,,- ^ 

C *^T > c 

c 

c * 



<c «c: 



c <f cc. <j£3KZIC< <c 

' j<? ec< <i cgr <xicr cc* c 

ir*"' <cc <r c«P'<r<C[; ccc* 

cs3' t< oc<scacrco c« 

c c <c cc*cT*~ a cv 

' *CT«'CC< C«<£ cr 

3<C <3t^r<C 

d : ccc cc<r<r cc< .<r««d<t<'" c 
xCCcCC Ccc <rfc^ cc cC«C<8 

_cc cccrrcrc vCiOt^. <— 

4c<C: crcc Cr- <r*CXr<^ < <^ 

= >ccc c«c~ «ro '<3Ksr^i c . ~ 
=xcc <:«scc cc .oaascxsss r ~ 
■^v-.^-.^*^- CC dr&K?" C3 i 
«^^er««pccc<: o cccr cce^c 

i<- CC rvtcc. CXTc cC2«CjDi 
J<XC cc;c<r <TCc C1<X< ? 
- TO . "/C <3tc c'CZjCSsH 

xzjjc.ct * *KZZl c < c . c< ccc cxi' x<^<X"c 

it < c c : ac «cc c ";c<ccx^ ' ' 

^cc CC CCCC CCc dCC : ' 

:c < tec <:<: c ^«cr«cc' 






<<1 






(C C& 



5 cc c 

8 <C C 



<c«cc 
c«c«rc 



c«*«K 



_c<i<c 



CC C 
CC c 

cc c 



]CCC 



^coc 



CC 

' cc 
r<s Ce c 

CC < 

?, CC- ^;. 

< CC < 
Hr CC_ 

CC 
Vc OC c< 

cc: t 

CC 

< -CCC < 

, c <rc <■ 






^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, j 

a jMo//.u/z i 



^<7 c <c < 

^<r c ^c 

= <r OCC 

c c 

c C 

c: c 

C c 

C CC ' <<CZ<C 5 J;^ 



cc *^c c 

c cc <■ < 
re cc k 

CCC 

•CCC :< 



! UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. ! 



" <CC:< c€T <T <'-^S-^ 

_<sk« cr «iCcC: f ^ < 

7 <tc «; c<: C <c«iC C ^1^" 

"cc cc cr c 

X("((C C c(«CCC«Ct c c 

"' ^:< • rc< '■ C «c<C C < -■« -''J<7- c c ^>^>^ z^' 

VfCr^c C ccccdC <£< <: c e CC.^.c ; ^ c 

'<£■< «c c tepec c cc c c^^ r - v< ;^ ^ 



C Cc rc -' 
« c crc c 

r<_ cc <■ 
i c <i5 ' ^'C 

CC < c.CC 

-< C<:< ; ^C<. 

,- Cs f ; «CC 

,t- Cf(CC c 
r cr • "C <_ C 



c cc 

C C< 

r <£^ 

c <<< 

C i CC< 

< cc c<;< 

C 



c C< C 

cc crc ; 



;' c c^ccvr c jgf 

.. c ^r " <3 O'CC C < c«, 

V ccpccc < ^ <^ 



cc ^ 
■^ cc CCC 



cc vac, c cccv^v^ .'V^V- ^ r<r^r^C^cr ' cc C CC^ < C^ tac^ ^ - ^ 

cececrc <«rC^^ fc^efcifg cil ^cc S c ^ccg 

■"<< <-rc c tc<iaccc c c y c S2^=^ :^ ^> 

tfe«c tccsccx' Fffi5 £f<gfek amxjt <£■%£?■< 



"Cc ^cr c CC3C«1 C 

<:<?.«? < cc<cTd.c_ 

r< C CCCCCC CC C 

<r ^ CCCC cc c 

C'CCCGCCC 
C< ^CKjCC Cc c c 

c «c<ccc cc d c 



Cc c 
CC c < 

C C €CZC^c ^ 

x c c<r ex c 

C C CCTCCC CC 



c c c *zaE&& ^^ cx>i^ 

r COC <C c cCl •» *- 



e'er c c c 



c ( ?s: 



:oc.cc 

CBdcC 



'CCC ^ v ^ ^p^ 

c^ <3£ Ikr 



\cc^ c<r «^- 

7CC C<t C<^ 

r cc c 



^ <mz 






<zl «m 



_<~ St ( 



*mrx c d c<ec««r 

*mr c c c<tc««bez 



c <c <_<:"<:«rr < c 
-r — (X<? 
"cCCC 



<c <cc^r^ ccac c 



~-<fe<c*C£cs£<c:cc~.<: c cc- 

c<cc<ac:<t?c-crd _ cd c cc 
^ccc<ce«."dd' dj c cc- 

«cc<3*c <i c c d c cc 

■ <C C ^Z c<r Cc ■ 

ic<<rc" d" <c cc : 

l^<3C""'<ICC cc: c 
^c> c: «c «:..._ -c <tc ■ 

c ccr 



d c.<c -••< 
crc c < 
<cr dec cc 
«- cr c ( 

:-c< e 

? « CI.CS6 

y;« c c- 



©cc 



MT< C < 
Cd c c 

ccc '< 
cd < ic 

7d ; c cC CCo 



■ «■ 



CTCC d 

= ccc c 
dCC C 



:. cc cc «i 

cCd 'C<C 

CC C < d 

C C •: <gf 
CC C • < 
C7C 



C C<r'(C cl 

••' «C*dC' C c 
£~j<i d cc« 

O^C Cd 
e < < ce« 
c c 



C~CC<ZTCCC <J1ACC 

d CtlCCG 52prcc 

< d csrcdl ddc OKLfc 

CCcd<Xc d«2Ccc 
d" CccdZdCC d«ccc 

c d ^acncrcc .ofe c 



~icc 
yc < 
do 

< c 

C o 

Z- c 



CCdC dC< 



C <C d CC^C 

<r c dlcedTdC c 

<C e - dCC'cd CC < 

<C < cCciC:CC. - r 
" cC" dice C <dl < 

«dcc (.ofe^: ; 

c <L «Cd <£jC_ ( 
<ST " < c<Sc7<3td c 

dec dT<QCI f - 
C **3C '^ < Codes <d?<rd * 

*cc: cv<<cd c 

C <«*^L~Cccc cC< C<I3C < 
^C^ <3 C v C-c <C «35dl c 

J: Cc c cd« -'d'^iCZ <^ 
< CC c «. dc« «C <MCT ^ ! 

cere <d^*3iczr;<<j 



C3CLCC 
<Z^O cc 

0«3c:: < <r 
z<c 

*3cTccc «^^ 

r<3ECC«t 
■<rixCcv ^d' 
<CcT cc <3C_ 

< c^oxi : - <: _ 

< ^ICC'.cf CXI 

'<£ cc <z<: 

. <gr£c&?<r cc 
<. crrcc ;.cc c<T 

« 4 (C&CCC 

< f C3T?§ r CC. 
C ' CjC:-:c <<■ CC 
t c cCJ've CC 

« CX^- C? CCT 



CC 
vC 
CCC 

cc- 

CC; 
CCv 
CC 



:• d -(^ 

d cra«c 
• d c^ 

<Z€d 

d. :^C 

Oidl 

< <l<m 
• dj(c* 

C t«®i 



c did 

cc— CC 

tec: 
rcrc 

CCS TC'C 



CC 

cc 

CC 

cc^ 

C / 



C7d 

CC 

c < 
CC 

cc; 

c c 



""<. cc c "d< ; C'd^dr C < cc <3CC> ■<;< c< 

eje ccc<<d c c c a ccc c <c 
: ccc cdc'«c:«ri cc cc cdc^ccc: 

■<d c CCCC*C C" CC'^ CCci*CC 

c c<€Cc ccocdT cccc- a c 

C C^Cc <dccCdr CT C CC CCacC 

^Tc (Ccd c c c5:cc <cc 

-: C .Cr<fC C C CC CCiCo.cc 

<*^c cc?3r<Z d ; cdK ccc ccc 

c c ^s:.c -c-<<r c c^z^cc c 

cr c ccd: c c ^CTCC :< 

c <g C Ccd d CC^EIcCccc 

c CCc c 'C'fcc C" c «T l< <r 

€W- <: ■& <<zr <z c '^sicc:. <- 

cC<c C C dlc^vccc , 
< <■ C 'Cfcd d C <H cc ■■, cccc 
cc; c «s'«Z'<Z' dcCC^ CCicccc; ^ 
■ c flared C cccdx^-t'c 4 
: v- r- ,c<c; cr d cc dr. . c c c 
i <c<CT<Z cCCC dc CC? c c 4 
cccdlc: cCCC Cc C <c C «9i 



C cc c<gj ccc -cc 
r; c cc - ccc cc c 
'. cc cc cc cc c 
Cc CC ( cc c C C 
Cc CC <r<i c C C 
CCd Ccc c'C"^ C ; 
cc d cc cc C 
CC'<7> cc C<Z O 
dCIdcc: creel. <Z 

cc d 7 e<-c- ccc: C" 
<C d f cc CC" d '< 
Cgc C c<c.. CC d 
<3c ■ c -C CT ' ' 

CC <- '• c cC-C c 

<S5 : : ^ <cc c ( 

^^C c «s;C cwccc C c 
<^Elc c cccd c c 



^' C C 

: 
cc c< 



<lEi:c: 



^^ -Cc 5 cc <^E Ccc r ccc 

ccc^E, c<m<cc< arcac v 
cdZL CC^ccc ^i^"' ccc c c 

-■ c> ., c ^B^2« C<Sc 
— ^ CCC( 

ks^C <X c 

ccc: <2 cc< c c <^f^c; ^^ 



-CCC 



CC_ CCC Ccc. t <CI^Cc 

1 c <CC :c cc -ccc cere 



cc; cic 

- cc^C'C cc<c 
ex cd^CTdT edd 

■'■■:"<Zl<<- CC CCCc 

[ -<" ccc ccicc cccr 

cccccrcd ^ccc 



c CC;:cc^C««CXc 

ICC & C <Z ' 



cc 

c c • c< 

c c c c 



dCC C3c cc 
COCCC c 
<CCCCSC( 
d"<dcc<^c c 

cccd - 



clv c.o.ct c C. « c c 
cc Ccc 
ccdC C< CCO 
CCC c c ca: c 

cc c c ; cere 

CC r ccccc c c 

^C : CC- 'C1C C CC Ccl 

ccc c <j:<^ r 
f f c- ccc ccc<ssc~< 
cc c-c< < 

^'d c <tcl cc 

cccr ccc cl cc 

( '<c *c<r'C c. 

ccc c<c c cr <r c^: 

w ( -<CL c <c cc_o 

gc< c -.<<«c: c <cc ct " 

iC cc^^sdaCc <c cc « 

<Z~ C cdl c c 

' ^-di c cd ^ < 



DISQUISITION 



ON THE 



NATURE AND PROPERTIES 



OF 



LIVING ANIMALS. 



WITH 



AN INQUIRY 



HOW FAR OUR KNOWLEDGE OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY IS 
CONSISTENT WITH THE BELIEF OF A 

SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE, 

AND ON THE INTELLECTUAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 

MAN AND BRUTES. 




By GEORGE WARREN, Surgeon. 



LONDON: 

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW ; AND 

T. BUTCHER, 108, REGENT-STREET. 

1828. 



^ 



^3 



T. C. Hansard, Pater -noster-row Press. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE Author has, in the following pages, 
abridged the matter of the different heads as far 
as could be done consistently with the Argu- 
ment. In no part has this been more necessary 
than in that portion coming under the head of 
Pathology, in which the leading features only 
of Disease could be taken conformably with the 
design of this work. It is, however, his inten- 
tion, at a future period, to treat of Disease in 
detached inquiries. 

4, Albany Terrace, 
Regent's Park. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. I. ...... p. 1 

Life — its difficulties — must he met as other subjects — 
No rationale of Life hitherto formed — hence the 
little use of our physiological facts — Extract from 
Mr. Lawrence — Extract from Sir Charles Morgan 
— Interest and consequence of Inquiry up to this 
period — General opinions on the subject may be 
divided into three classes — First class— Second class 
— Third class — These opinions considered relatively 
— Dilemma of the present state of knowledge — 
The Inquiry must be simple and the language 
perspicuous — Natural order of Inquiry. 



CHAP. II p. 18 

Metaphysics. — On a faculty and an act — Illustration 
— Perceptibility is self-evident — Perceptibility and 
Sensibility not the same — The acts of Perception and 
Sensation simultaneous but not identical — Illustra- 
tion — Faculties of retaining, discerning, comparing, 
compounding, and abstracting — Sameness of the 
intellectual principle — Faculty of Willing — Faculty 
of Passion and Affection — On the Anima or Soul 
— The word Animal an adjective — Soul and Mind 
have been confounded — Definite Ideas must be form- 
ed of the two terms — Definition of Mind — Our ordi- 
nary manner of speaking is consistent with this defi- 
nition — On the formation of Mind— Character — 
Definition of Life. 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAP. Ill p. 36 

Animal Sensibility — its modifications five — the organs 
of the Jive modifications — arteries and nerves essen- 
tial to Sensibility — on the arteries — on the nerves— 
connecting observations — Proposition — Facts in 
support — An essential preliminary consideration — 
Sum or force of a Sensation is determined by three 
circumstances — enumerated—first circumstance con - 
sidered — second circumstance considered — third cir- 
cumstance considered — Conclusion concerning these 
three circumstances — Several animal phenomena 
exp lain ed-— Con elusion . 

CHAP. IV p. 54 

Assimilating organs — the uses of food-taking — - 
decomposition of the body questioned — The pre- 
servative principle of flesh, or Mr. Hunter s vital 
principle — may be exhausted — and again restored — 
What this principle is — Whence derived — Facts in 
support — On the required quantities of food — Con- 
clusion. 

CHAP. V p. 62 

The Lungs — bring the blood into contact with the air 
— supposed object of this — questioned — and disproved 
— Animal heat — no fixed degree essential to life — 
the degree of heat an adventitious circumstance — 
source of heat and use of the Lungs — argument in 
support — on media influencing the degree of heat — 
Fishes — Amphibia — Insects— Conclusion. 

CHAP. VI />. 74 

3Iuscular motion — consists in the simple property of 
contracting — is dependent upon nervous agency — 
Electric fluid is capable of exciting muscles to con- 



CONTENTS. Vll 

tract — Dr. Tire's experiment— Argument and facts 
in support of the identity of electric fluid and the 
natural cause of muscular contraction — Concluding 
remarks. 



CHAP. VII ^.83 

Re-view of facts and proof of proposition — The simul- 
taneous existence and destruction of the physical pro- 
perties of living animals — A clear, intelligible, and 
rational view of a living animal— and of the animal 
creation generally — A practical inference. 



CHAP. VIII p. 92 

Pathology . — Its object — Inflammation — Fever — 
Typhus — a result of fever — its forms— -Sea-scurvy — 
Fainting — Hectic fever — Consumption — Some other 
Diseases — Conclusion . 



CHAP. IX p. 107 

Examination of the arguments in favour of Material- 
ism — M. Bichafs argument concerning organic and 
animal Sensibility — is sophistical — A physical no- 
tion of life has insuperable physical objections — 
The reasoning of Materialists upon cause and effect 
—is not sound — Contrary to the assertions of the 
Materialists, the Soul may be defined, is evidenced 
by the senses, and has palpable proof in its effects 
— The size of the Brain — gives no support to Mate- 
rialism—but is in direct opposition to it— The pro- 
bable use of the brain— Conclusion — is in accordance 
ivith the possibility of a future life— and that as 
taught by the Christian Scriptures. 



Vlll INTENTS. 

CHAP. X p. 133 

To admit a Soul in all living creatures is not un- 
scriptural — Comparison of the brute and human 
Soul — wherein they differ — Language — acquired 
before knowledge — uses of this — The act of abstract- 
ing, explained— is essential to religious knowledge — 
Why religion cannot be acquired by brutes — On the 
minds of savages — Conclusion. 



DISQUISITION, &c. 



CHAPTER I. 



Life — its difficulties-— must be met as other subjects — 
No rationale of Life hitherto formed — hence the 
little use of our physiological facts — Extract from 
Mr. Lawrence — Extract from Sir Charles Morgan 
— Interest and consequence of Inquiry up to this 
period — General opinions on the subject may be 
divided into three classes — First class — Second class 
— Tliird class— These opinions considered relatively 
'—Dilemma of the present state of knowledge— 
The Inquiry must be simple and the language 
perspicuous — Natural order of Inquiry* 

IN affixing a title to the following Treatise I 
have endeavoured to make this what the title 
of every book ought to be, an index to its 
contents. Nevertheless, a word or two upon 
the matter by way of introduction, may be 
here, without any unnecessary waste of time, 
well and usefully applied. The inquiries 
hitherto instituted by philosophers, whether 
anatomists, physiologists, chemists, naturalists, 

B 



2 



or metaphysicians, although highly creditable 
to their industry and research, and essentially 
useful in commencing and forwarding the in- 
vestigation of this matter, have not been suffi- 
ciently general or enlarged, to lead to that 
extended and uniform comprehension of the 
subject which constitutes a science. Their 
individual inquiries having been partial, and 
directed only to the attainment of knowledge 
concerning some particular organ or function 
' connected with life, to the habits or forms of 
animals, to the physical and chemical laws of 
matter, or to the discussion of some dogma 
connected with existence; their detached 
portions of inquiry have been properly termed, 
anatomical, experimental, metaphysical, and 
natural inquiries, examinations, histories, or 
descriptions of animals. But in a Disquisition, 
may be embraced the whole range of inves- 
tigation, which reason with all her powers, 
aided by the experiments and observations of 
other men, can grasp concerning the subject ; 
and upon that account I have used this term. 

Life or animal being, how imperfectly soever 
it may be understood, is that state of existence 
which man possesses in common with his 
fellow-inhabitants of this world of matter. It 



is essentially the same in all, but being much 
varied in form, and being also supported in 
every instance by a complication of functions, 
and the functions being varied in different ani- 
mals, as well from their situation as from their 
size and form, these circumstances have rendered 
the subject so difficult to be understood, that 
many, and indeed most, men, have considered it 
an impenetrable mystery ; and the superstitious 
fears of the multitude are ever ready to consider 
impious, any attempts to search into this, as 
they suppose, guarded secret. To investigate 
the nature of this being, is the province of a 
peculiar science ; which, however much it may 
be aided by other kinds of knowledge, must 
always remain a distinct species of art. Never- 
theless, the same principles which direct the 
investigation of other subjects, will be used 
here, and the result of the inquiry must be 
scrutinized with the same suspicion, and sub- 
mitted to the same severe tests of truth. Like 
all complicated subjects, in order to be under- 
stood, it must be considered in its several parts ; 
and hence an analytic inquiry into the properties 
of a living animal is the best, if not the only ra- 
tional method, of acquiring a knowledge of life ; 
and the degree of success in this pursuit, will 
be found to depend upon the nicety of analysis. 

b 2 



Although great advances have of late years 
been made in animal chemistry, and in ascer- 
taining the functions of particular organs, and 
in tracing their influence in living bodies, yet 
there has not hitherto appeared anything like a 
rational explanation of animal existence : writ- 
ten works, professedly physiological, being- 
little more than the enumeration of the partial 
inquiries of others, with a few unsuccessful 
attempts at establishing general principles. And 
the constant subject of complaint, expressed 
and felt by inquiring men, is the obscurity and 
mystery which accompanies life, when consider- 
ed in the whole, however clearly and intelligibly 
it may appear to have been demonstrated and 
perceived in its several parts. 

This apparent comprehension of life in its 
parts, and its hidden nature when considered in 
the whole, is much to be regretted, since it 
is in "the conjunction of truths which preserve 
the genuine tendency, and secure the efficacy 
of each, " and not in the simple knowledge of 
a few isolated facts, that we must seek for 
intellectual satisfaction, or for practical and 
extensive usefulness. 

It has been wisely observed by a celebrated 



controversialist upon this subject (Mr. Law- 
rence), " that descriptions of particular animals, 
and surveys of detached districts, in the great 
kingdom of nature, are not so much wanted at 
present, as the assemblage and assortment of 
the facts already accumulated, and the employ- 
ment of them by some person to furnish the 
fundamental principles of the science of living 
nature. It is employment, and not mere pos- 
session, which gives a value to intellectual as 
well as material wealth. We have had work- 
men enough to toil in the mine and the quarry — 
they have raised an abundance of materials — 
and we now only wait for the architect who 
shall be able to employ them in constructing a 
temple suitable in majesty and simplicity to 
the divinity. " 

" Dissection, " says the same author, "and 
the various auxiliary processes employed by 
the anatomist, are the only means of learning 
the structure of living beings ; observation and 
experiment, the only sources of our knowledge 
of life. These are the tests or criteria on 
which we must depend, and to which we must 
always refer. No position respecting structure 
can be listened to, unless it admit of verification 
by appeal to anatomy ; no physiological state- 



6 

ment deserves attention, unless it be confirmed 
by observation. " 

He also observes, " the multitude and variety 
of organs in the human body, the complexity 
of their structure, the modifications incidental 
to each, and their mutual influences, offer a 
most extensive field of investigation, requiring 
so much time and assiduity, so much caution 
and discrimination, that the qualities necessary 
*to a successful pursuit of physiology cannot 
be often combined in one individual. 

"When to man (says he) we add all the 
living beings which fill every department of 
nature, and consider the diversities and new 
combinations by which they are enabled to 
fulfil their various destinies, it will be hardly 
figurative to say, that the objects of inquiry are 
infinite and inexhaustible. 

" In this as in most other subjects, the 
quantity of solid instruction is an inconsiderable 
fraction of the accumulated mass. A few grains 
of wheat are buried and lost amid heaps of 
chaff. For a few well- observed facts, rational 
deductions, and cautious generalizations, we 
have whole clouds of systems and doctrines, of 



speculations and fancies, built merely on the 
workings of the imagination and the labours of 
the closet. " 

Upon the imperfect conclusions drawn by- 
individuals from their partial inquiries, it has 
been well observed by another writer (Sir C. 
Morgan) that, " in every thing that concerns 
vital action, there are so many points to con- 
sider, so many discounts and allowances to be 
made, before the result of experiments can 
be obtained with purity and precision, that 
almost every writer has given a different sum 
total to his labours. The chemist is not neces- 
sarily a good physiologist, nor the physiologist 
an accurate experimenter ; so that it is rare to 
find a person uniformly well qualified to discuss 
the questions which arise in these investigations. 
But, as every one relies on his own observations, 
theories have been formed by an abuse of 
induction from the partial results of individual 
inquiry, by almost every author who has 
written on the subject. " 

He also, viewing the numerous difficulties 
by which the subject is surrounded, says, 
4 ' Considered in insulation, the moral and physical 
history of man is an inextricable labyrinth. 



8 

His various and complicated functions refuse to 
submit to analysis, and the origin and end of 
his being are alike placed beyond the reach of 
definition and conjecture. M 

The subject has ever been one of deep 
interest, and a point of meditation and wonder 
to all preceding ages ; the philosophers of anti- 
quity having made it the constant theme of their 
speculations, while of late years it has been most 
actively agitated and discussed both in this coun- 
try and abroad ; yet the speculations of the anci- 
ents, and the controversy of the moderns, instead 
of throwing out a light of knowledge, or giving 
any satisfaction to an inquiring mind, have only 
evinced the subtle ingenuity of the unsuccessful 
theorist, and tended to shew really how little 
the nature of life is understood ; while, by 
embarrassing the judgment with conflicting 
opinions, it has naturally led to the discourage- 
ment of attempts at a better system. 

Science generally, either directly or indi- 
rectly, is so connected with this subject, that 
nearly all philosophical writings may be con- 
sidered to bear upon it; but the more immediate 
and professed writers upon animal being, may 
be divided into three classes. The opinions of 



9 

these differ, and their modes of reasoning have 
been those which they have thought best 
adapted to the support of their respective 
notions. Not one of these opinions, aided by- 
its accompanying arguments, is satisfactory ; 
nor is any thing conclusive established from 
either ; and the merit of each writer consists 
rather in confuting, or at least confounding, the 
opinion of another, than in establishing his own 
hypothesis. 

One class of these are they who contend 
that a living principle, having an existence in- 
dependent of the physical body, and endued 
with those faculties which constitute the mind, 
and being of an indestructible nature, is the 
life-giving principle to the animal. This opin- 
ion they argue for, upon the assumption of the 
moral agency of man (the only animal which 
these writers contemplate), by a species of 
reasoning which, considered as foreign to phy- 
sical reasoning, is termed metaphysical ; but 
many of its supporters advance the Jewish 
account of man's creation, and the general te- 
nour of the Christian Scriptures as its sole 
basis. 

Another class are they, who, perceiving that 



10 

the developement of the body precedes that of 
the mind, and that the mental faculties may 
be suspended or impaired by corporeal in- 
jury, or disordered function ; and arguing that 
our knowledge upon this and all other subjects 
is confined to cause and effect, do maintain 
that every property of the living animal, per- 
ceptibility, will, mental development, and 
all the phenomena of life, are the result of 
organization, and that it is useless to seek any 
• other explanation. And, as an argument against 
reasoning otherwise, they show the absurd- 
ities and errors into which men may be led, 
by taking up notions unsupported by facts, 
especially in the treatment of disease. These 
arguments, with a few others concerning phy- 
sical influence on conduct, have been used by 
some poets and philosophers, in opposition to 
the opinions of those who contend for a spi- 
ritual principle, corporeal subserviency, and 
future hopes. 

I cannot adopt a fairer method, or present a 
clearer view of the opinions of these writers, 
than by using the words of an intelligent 
author before quoted. " I see," says he, " the 
animal functions inseparable from the animal 
organs — first showing themselves when they 



11 

are first developed — coming to perfection as 
they are perfected — modified by their various 
affections — decaying as they decay, and finally 
ceasing as they are destroyed. 

" Examine the mind, the grand prerogative 
of man. Where is the mind of the foetus ? 
where that of the child just born ? Do we 
not see it actually built up before our eyes by 
the actions of the five external senses, and of 
the gradually-developed internal faculties ? 
Do we not trace it advancing by a slow pro- 
gress through infancy and childhood, to the 
perfect expansion of its faculties in the adult — 
annihilated for a time by a blow on the head, 
or the shedding of a little blood in apoplexy — 
decaying as the body declines in old age — 
and finally reduced to an amount hardly per- 
ceptible, when the body worn out by the mere 
exercise of the organs, reaches, by the simple 
operation of natural decay, that state of de- 
crepitude most aptly termed second child- 
hood?" 

" Where then shall we find proofs of the 
mind's independence on the bodily structure ? 
of that mind which, like the corporeal frame, 
is infantine in the child, manly in the adult, 



12 

sick and debilitated in disease, phrenzied or 
melancholy in the madman, enfeebled in the 
decline of life, doating in decrepitude, and an- 
nihilated by death ? 

" Take away from the mind of man, or from 
that of any other animal, the operations of the 
five external senses, and the functions of the 
brain, and what will be left behind ? 

"That life then, or the assemblage of all 
the functions, is immediately dependent on 
organization, appears to me, physiologically 
speaking, as clear as that the presence of the 
sun above the horizon causes the light of 
day. 

"To say that a thing of merely negative 
qualities, that is, an immaterial substance, which 
is neither evidenced by any direct testimony, 
nor by any indirect proof from its effects, does 
exist, and can think, is quite consistent in 
those who deny thought to animal structures, 
where we see it going on every day. " 

The other class of writers are they who, 
seeing great design in the structure of animals, 
and admitting the importance to life of the 



13 

animal functions, and having daily experience 
of the influence of physical causes upon the 
minds of men, do yet upon moral and meta- 
physical grounds, maintain that some other 
principle, of which their conception is very im- 
perfect and their ideas confused, must also 
exist in union with matter, to explain the phe- 
nomena of mind, and to render certain tenets 
in which they believe and fully confide, of 
possible accomplishment. 

Now, a future state of existence, considered 
abstractedly from any physiological or ana- 
tomical knowledge, is simply a matter of be- 
lief. Anatomy, considered as a science, is 
simply a knowledge of animal structure. Phy- 
siology is simply a knowledge of the uses of 
the different parts of the body so far as they 
are ascertained. Hence, they who have only 
sought, in a knowledge of structure and func- 
tions, to understand their nature and influence 
as the basis of practical medicine, have there 
rested satisfied in their inquiries. While they 
who, in a belief of a future state of existence, 
have sought in a knowledge of structure and 
functions support for such belief, have, after 
their inquiries, been unable to show from the 
present state of such knowledge, any support 



14 

to their creed. On the other hand, some pro- 
fess to have found in these inquiries, no suffi- 
cient reason for throwing up their belief. Op- 
posed in argument, the former have a seeming 
advantage over the latter, in that they contend 
only for what they know ; but the extent of 
their real knowledge is the same, both admit- 
ting the received anatomical and physiological 
facts, and neither being able to show any con- 
nection which they have with future being ; 
the reasonable assent to another life resting 
upon other facts than those which anatomy 
and physiology afford. 

This being the present state of knowledge, 
it unfortunately results, that he whose atten- 
tion and study have been directed to the attain- 
ment of skill in the cure of diseases, has been 
driven by the imperfection of science, to the 
necessity either of regarding animal existence 
in an entirely physical point of view, or of 
admitting the existence of some other principle 
than matter, with which no connection with 
the organic operations could be discovered. 
The first admission might be the basis of 
science to the exclusion of any rational ground 
for moral principles : the latter might be the 
basis of moral principle to the exclusion of 



15 

science. To one of these formidable results, 
either opinion must lead, unless man could so 
command his thinking powers, as to regard the 
same body in two opposite views at the same 
time. It is not meant by this to deny that 
many men, eminent in medical and surgical 
science, and in the practice of piety and moral- 
ity, have regarded man both as a moral agent 
and as a physical body ; but they have always 
been compelled to pursue in argument, oppo- 
site lines of reasoning, in support of these op- 
posed notions. And no person has ever traced 
any satisfactory connection between man as a 
moral agent, and a physical being. What con- 
nection has ever been shown between him as a 
physical being and mind, has a tendency to deny 
his moral agency, and to make him the creature 
of physical necessity. 

These observations, showing the present state 
of knowledge upon the subject, being pre- 
mised, I shall proceed to investigate the na- 
ture of a living animal, and then to inquire 
into the uses of the different organs and func- 
tions of the body, and their subserviency to 
life, in which some new views will be ex- 
pounded, illustrated, and, I trust, proved. 
These will enable me, in a later part of this 



16 



paper, to agitate again and discuss the question 
of Materialism. 

Upon a subject admittedly so extensive, 
complicated, and abstruse, the arrangement of 
inquiry, the conduct of the argument, the use 
of terms, and manner of writing, must be stea- 
dily controlled by simplicity and clearness, 
to the entire exclusion of figures and ornaments 
of language; which, how useful soever they 
niay be in masking error, or in ornamenting 
subjects requiring exterior decoration, cannot 
be borne upon the fair person of Truth, without 
obscuring her form and veiling her beauties. 
And when it is considered, that in order to 
investigate this matter with a probability of 
success, the animal kingdom must be contem- 
plated in its immense variety, the laws of 
natural philosophy understood and borne in 
mind, physiological facts and received opinions 
considered, arranged, examined, retained, or 
upon just reason rejected ; and that the science 
of mind, or the knowledge of the intellectual 
faculties, over which at present there hangs a 
cloud of great obscurity, must be better ar- 
ranged and demonstrated: these considera- 
tions become a fair claim for indulgence as to 
the method which may be adopted in treating 



17 

upon this very interesting and important sub- 
ject. 

I shall conclude this chapter by observing, 
that, in the construction of an engine, machine, 
or apparatus, its parts are made subservient 
to one great design, and the excellence of its 
construction depends upon its simplicity and 
nice adaptation of parts in accomplishing its 
object. The object to be accomplished is the 
first consideration with the contriver; then 
the peculiar circumstances connected with it; 
after which, his wisdom is exercised in plan- 
ning and adapting its several parts. In ex- 
plaining the nature of an instrument or machine, 
the natural course is not to expatiate upon its 
several parts, and then show how the whole 
is formed, and thence explain the end to be 
accomplished; but we must first show the 
end to be accomplished, then follow the wise 
design of the contriver in the uses of the 
more important parts, then proceed to those 
of less importance, and thence to the minuter 
pieces influencing its operation in accomplish- 
ing the object. This course I propose to adopt 
in treating upon a living animal. 



CHAPTER II. 

Metaphysics. — On a faculty and an act — Illustration 
— Perceptibility is self-evident — Perceptibility and 
Sensibility not the same— The acts of Perception and 
Sensation simultaneous but not identical — Illustra- 
tion—Faculties of retaining^ discerning, comparing 9 
compounding, and abstracting— Sameness of the 
intellectual principle — Faculty of Willing — Faculty 
of Passion and Affection. — On the Anima or Soul 
— The word Animal an adjective — Soul and Mind 
have been confounded — Definite Ideas must be form- 
ed of the two terms — Definition of Mind — Our ordi- 
nary manner of speaking is consistent with this defi- 
nition — On the formation of Mind — Character— 
Definition of Life. 

THERE exists in every living animal, a 
principle, power, property, or quality of per- 
ceiving. And to this principle, power, pro- 
perty, or quality of perceiving, without here 
entering into any inquiry as to its mode of 
being, I shall appropriate the term Percepti- 
bility. But, that a clear and just notion of the 
sense in which this term is used by me may 
be taken, it must be comprehended as imply- 
ing merely the abstract power or faculty of 
perceiving, and must not be confounded with 



19 

perception, which is the act of perceiving. To 
avoid being misunderstood, it will be well to 
have the attention directed to a familiar illus- 
tration in an analogous power and act. 

The eye, for instance ; supposing it endued 
with Perceptibility, might be said to have the 
power of perceiving the ring of Saturn, but 
such power could only be demonstrated, when, 
by the intervention of a powerful telescope, 
the actual perception of the ring would be 
accomplished. Or a man, blind from cataract 
or other cause, may easily be conceived to 
have the abstract power or capacity of seeing, 
although actual vision cannot be accomplished, 
until the obstacle to the exercise of such power 
be removed. Or a man, shut up in a still dark 
room, may easily be understood to have the 
powers of seeing and hearing, although, under 
those circumstances, he would be incapable of 
exercising those powers by the acts of seeing 
and hearing. 

Perceptibility, consciousness (synonymous 
terms) or the abstract power of perceiving or 
knowing, is the peculiar attribute of animals, 
and is the great distinguishing feature between 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Its ex- 

c 2 



20 

istence is self-evident to every living creature ; 
which evidence, as it is the most certain, so 
it is the only proof of its existence. While 
however, the demonstration of this property 
to every being possessing it is self-evident, the 
absence of other kind of proof, renders it almost 
impossible to mark accurately the boundaries 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Never- 
theless, as we proceed, there' will be found 
quite sufficient matter to afford the conclusion* 
Jhat the two kingdoms are perfectly distinct, 
and that their union has existed only in the 
imagination of a fanciful philosophy. 

This term, Perceptibility, must be no longer 
confounded as it has been, with the word 
Sensibility : the latter will be found to be an 
evident quality of matter, admitting of a de- 
monstration as such, having many of its laws 
known, and allowing of an increase and dimi- 
nution of its power from many causes, as will 
be hereafter shown : it may be defined the 
quality, power, or capacity in flesh, of convey- 
ing impressions made upon it, to the perceiving 
principle. Sensibility implies only the abstract 
power of doing so, while the term sensation 
denotes the act. 



21 

The organic act of conveying impressions to 
the perceiving power, and the intellectual act 
of perceiving, being simultaneous, either the 
term perception or sensation, may therefore 
be used indifferently, without producing any 
«rror in reasoning ; provided they be strictly 
confined to the acts of perceiving and convey- 
ing impressions. But the terms perceptibility 
and sensibility, can never be used indifferently, 
without leading to the utmost confusion. The 
vague use of these words has been one great 
obstacle to the proper understanding of animal 
life, and the basis of a sophism upon which 
M. Bichet has founded his erroneous doctrine 
of vitality — a sophism than which nothing has 
given a greater support to Materialism. 

As it is so essentially necessary in the pre- 
sent Disquisition, to keep a clear and distinct 
idea of sensibility abstractedly from the power 
of perceiving, I shall, even at the risk of being 
tedious, endeavour to render this point, if pos- 
sible, more plain, by a familiar analogy. Thus, 
A pays B a sum of money — here are two 
intelligible acts — the act of payment done by 
A, and the act of receipt done by B : yet these 
acts being simultaneous, the mutual act of 
A and B may be denoted either by the terms 



22 

Payment or Receipt, without causing any error 
in reasoning upon the matter : but if A, who 
pays, be confounded with B, who receives, 
all right reasoning must be at an end ; their 
persons not being identical, although their act 
was mutual and simultaneous. So it is with 
Sensibility and Perceptibility ; their acts are si- 
multaneous, but their qualities perfectly distinct. 

Our knowledge of those operations termed 
intellectual or mental, is acquired by an at- 
tention to what passes in our own person, yet 
the means of communication among mankind 
are sufficient to prove that similar operations 
take place in others ; but of the mental opera- 
tions of other animals than man, very little 
can be distinctly known. 

Mr. Locke, in his excellent " Analysis of the 
Human Understanding," recognises, beside the 
power of perceiving, the powers of retaining, dis- 
cerning, comparing, compounding, and of ab- 
stracting ideas. The existence of these powers 
in man is universally acknowledged by all who 
examine the matter; and evidence of this truth 
may be found by everyone who chooses to direct 
his attention to the operation of his own facul- 
ties. These latter powers or faculties are, like per- 



23 

ceptibility, demonstrable only in their action ; 
as perceptibility is demonstrated in the act of 
perception, so the power of retaining is seen 
only in the act of memory ; comparing, in the 
act of comparison; discerning, in the act of 
judgment ; compounding, in the act of compo- 
sition; and the power of abstracting, in the 
mental act of abstraction. 

Whoever is clearly acquainted with the 
meaning of these terms — retaining, discerning, 
comparing, compounding, and abstracting (they 
who are not may refer to Mr. Locke's book), 
and has, by a reference to the operations of his 
own understanding, had proof of the existence 
of such faculties, must know them to be ex- 
ercised only upon things previously perceived ; 
and it is self-evident, that the same principle 
which perceives is the principle which re- 
tains, discerns, compares, compounds, and ab- 
stracts. 

Animals are also endued with a power or 
faculty of willing the action or suspension of 
action of muscles, also of choosing or refusing ; 
and the exercise of this faculty is termed voli- 
tion. And here it is self-evident, that the 
same principle which perceives, wills tae 



24 

action or suspension of action, of the muscles, 
and chooses or refuses. The act of volition is 
always preceded by perception, and generally, 
if not always, influenced by the exercise of the 
faculty of discerning ; this, also, is evident to 
whomsoever turns his attention to the exercise 
of volition in his own person. 

Besides these powers or faculties in animals 
(but more particularly in man), there exists 
the abstract capacity for certain feelings termed 
passions and affections. An enumeration and 
definition of these feelings individually, would 
be here tedious and unnecessary. A good 
account of them may be found in Dr. Cogan's 
"Treatise upon thePassions," by any one desirous 
of considering them in detail. It is apparent, 
however, to every one experiencing in his own 
person, a passion or affection, that such passion 
or affection is experienced by the same prin- 
ciple which perceives, retains, compares, and 
wills. 

To these abstract powers or capacities in 
animals (but more particularly in man) of per- 
ceiving, retaining, discerning, comparing, com- 
pounding, and abstracting ideas ; of volition ; 
and of experiencing passions and affections ; to 



25 

these powers, qualities, or capacities, taken in 
the aggregate, without here entering into the 
inquiry as to their mode of existence, may be 
appropriated the term Anima or Soul ; and 
any, or every one of these powers or capacities, 
considered individually, may be called a faculty 
of the soul. 

There is derived from the substantive Anima, 
the adjective word ' animal,' which is a good 
expressive of the quality of its original. But, 
from some strange perversion, this derived term 
has been made to usurp the place of its original 
— has been made substantive — has had plural 
termination — and by long- continued abuse has 
become in meaning, just the reverse of its 
original signification ; the terms ' animal -grati- 
fication/ being now used to denote strongly 
an opposite to ( intellectual or mental enjoy- 
ment/ although the real meaning of these terms 
is exactly the same. For the purpose of keep- 
ing a clear understanding upon the present 
subject, this misuse of the term ' animal* must 
be reformed, or at the least it will be desirable 
to consider the term always adjective and ex- 
pressive of quality, and to understand the word 
' being/ in connexion with it. In the Mosaic 
account of the creation, admittedly the only 



26 

one having any claim to authority, the word 
' animal' is never used, nor any word which can 
be considered synonymous with it : but when 
the living creation is spoken of, it is generally 
by a detail of its several kinds; as "man, the 
beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the 
fishes of the sea, and all creeping things that 
creep ;'* or, where reference is made to them 
all collectively, it is under the terms "every 
living thing." And throughout the whole of 
the Jewish Scriptures, neither the word 'animal,' 
nor any corresponding term, is ever used ; nor 
is it to be found in the more recent Scriptures 
of Christians — the New Testament. 

The great argument in favour of the doctrine 
of Materialism, and that which is most dwelt 
upon by its supporters, is the fact of mental 
development accompanying the organic deve- 
lopment of the body. This fact is invulnerable 
to the attacks of its opponents ; and, viewed in 
any point, it presents the impenetrable armour 
of Truth. For, as has been before observed 
in quotation, not only is organic development 
essential to the formation of the mind, but or- 
ganic derangement may occasion mental de- 
rangement ; suspension of organic operations 
may suspend mental operations, as is seen in 



27 

fainting ; and high organic excitement evinces 
frequently great mental display ; besides these, 
the decay of the body is generally accompanied 
by impaired mind ; and the destruction of the 
organized body is, to all appearance, the death- 
blow of the mind. 

Much of the unprofitable controversy upon 
this subject, and the many difficulties in which 
it is involved, appear to me to have arisen from 
a vague and unsettled application of the term 
6 Mind/ which has sometimes been used to 
signify the soul, sometimes the ideas acquired 
by the soul, sometimes an opinion, and some- 
times a desire or wish. No writer upon this 
subject appears to have taken any definite 
views of the two terms soul and mind, and 
hence they have been used in so ambiguous a 
sense, as to render nugatory any attempt to 
establish just opinions upon the nature of 
animal being. Hence, also, the discourses of 
philosophers, divine and profane, teem with 
such irreconcilable positions, as seldom fail to 
render the subjects connected with this matter, 
a mere mass of bewildering words. Even Mr. 
Locke, whose acuteness in discerning, and 
powers of analysis were admittedly so great, 
has used these terms without any definite 



28 

meaning, by which his subject (the human 
understanding) has suffered much obscurity, 
and his opinions been laid open to much unne- 
cessary debate. To obviate and guard against 
the confusion which must otherwise arise, I 
shall here, however arbitrary the distinction 
may appear, give a definition of the term ' Mind' 
in contradistinction to the Soul ; and the just, 
nessof it, as well as its utility, will I trust appear 
in the sequel. 

The Mind is constituted of those ideas and 
that collective knowledge, which the anima or 
soul of an individual may have acquired through 
the medium of the organs of sense, and by its 
own powers of retaining, comparing, discerning, 
compounding, and abstracting ideas. Also, of 
that aptitude or readiness which the soul of an 
individual may have acquired, of willing the 
action or suspension of action, of muscles, and 
of choosing and refusing. Also, of that aptitude 
or readiness for certain feelings, with their 
accompanying actions, called passions, or affec- 
tions : or, in fewer words, it may be defined the 
acquirements of the soul. Hence it should 
appear, that the faculties of the soul may be 
inherent, while the Mind of the animal is 
evidently and admittedly acquired. 



29 

Mankind, without having clear and definite 
ideas upon a subject, do yet sometimes have 
such a glimpse of the truth, as preserves them 
from falling into gross inconsistencies of speech. 
Of this, an example presents itself in the com- 
mon usage of the term ' Mind,' which, how 
muchsoever it may have been abused in philo- 
sophical disputes, has been correctly appro- 
priated in common parlance. Whence these 
expressions are of daily occurrence, an imbecile 
mind, deranged mind, enlarged mind, enervated 
mind, decay of mind ; and the formation of 
mind, is spoken of in children. But the expres- 
sions of imbecile soul, deranged soul, enlarged 
soul, decay of soul, do seldom or never occur ; 
nor is the formation of soul ever spoken of in 
children. The expressions enlarged mind, and 
enlarged soul, if compared, will be found to 
convey different ideas ; the former will be under- 
stood to be an acquirement of knowledge, the 
latter, a soul liberated from the body ; at least 
I conceive such would be their acceptance, if 
not used in a connected discourse. 

Like every complex subject, the Mind also, 
to be properly comprehended and understood, 
must be contemplated in its several parts ; and 
this cannot be done better, than by observing 



30 

its gradual and regular formation in young 
animals (more particularly in man). For this 
purpose, turning the attention to the mental 
development of the infant, we perceive it 
gradually acquiring ideas through its organs of 
the senses, also acquiring gradually a command 
over certain of its muscles, which, when 
reduced to the dictates of the will, are called 
voluntary muscles : these two acquirements 
constitute the first stage of mental develop- 
ment. Brute animals appear to acquire a 
much more immediate and decided command 
over their muscles of loco-motion than man, 
the reason of which circumstance will be 
rendered intelligible hereafter in treating of 
muscular motion. An immediate command 
over the muscles of deglutition is common to 
all. The next stage may be considered that in 
which the infant slightly retains, compares, and 
discerns ; and the voluntary muscles are used in 
connection with some desire ; its passions and 
affections, also, now begin to display themselves 
in unguided caprice. At a later period, when 
the organs of the senses and of voluntary 
motion, are perfected in their functions and 
connection with the perceptive and willing 
powers of the animal, it is seen compounding 
its ideas in airy and improbable visions and 



31 

fancies ; there is also seen a kind of compound- 
ing of animal movement in unison with the 
sensible perception of sound, in dancing : and 
there occurs now, a natural desire and inclina- 
tion to form and indulge in an unrestrained 
combination of ideas with objects of the will, 
passions, and affections : this is the unsettled 
age of romance, imagination, desire, passion, 
and affection ; the giddy, blundering, fluttering, 
mad, happy, despairing, merry, sad, trifling 
day of youth, which soon passes and is gone. 
The higher of the intellectual or reasoning 
faculties now becomes exercised — abstracting, 
which is the basis of analytic inquiry, the 
foundation-stone of science, and the ennobling 
rock of man's intellectual superiority. This 
period, adolescence, is the spring time of 
reason. The already- acquired parrot-like 
knowledge of languages, the imagined person- 
ality of God, the gross knowledge of sensible 
objects, ideas of justice, morality, vice, &c, 
now become the objects of inquiry on the basis 
of abstracting, and the laws of science may now 
be comprehended and retained. From this 
period, the minds of men become much diversi- 
fied, and the intellectual faculties, having been 
well or ill directed and exercised, and the 
passions and affections having been properly 



32 

regulated or indulged in unbounded licence, 
give, as the result, that immense variety of 
Mind which is only equalled by multitude of 
animal form. 

This separate consideration of Soul and Mind 
is only necessary in a philosophical investiga- 
tion of animal being : in the ordinary affairs of 
the world, the faculties of the soul, with its 
acquired knowledge, habits, and actions, are 
considered collectively with the corporeal frame 
in the idea of individual character. Thus the 
faculties of the soul having been exercised in 
the contemplation of the laws of numbers and 
measurement, afford the character of the 
mathematician ; in the science of sounds, as 
forming harmony and melody, the musician ; in 
acquiring a knowledge of the laws of natural 
bodies, the chemist; in the contemplation, 
admiration, and reverence of the Supreme, the 
pious man ; exercised in those acts considered 
virtuous, the virtuous character ; in those con- 
sidered wicked, the wicked character; exercised 
in acquiring a peculiar command over the 
voluntary muscles, the dancer, fencer, volteur, 
&c. ; in conceiving correctly, and acquiring the 
act of representation or imitation, the actor 
and mimic ; correctly exercised in the investi- 



33 

gation of truth, the philosopher : but it is 
tedious to enumerate the simple definitions of 
partial character, and extremely difficult to 
accomplish a general description of the com- 
plicated character of any individual. This 
latter object should be the aim of the 
biographer, and should embrace person, natural 
and acquired, bodily and mental powers, 
habits, knowledge, opinions, arts, passions, and 
affections. 

The existence of the faculties of the soul, as 
enumerated in the preceding pages, must be, 
and is admitted by all, whether Materialists or 
not ; the question at issue being only whether 
they be qualities of matter arising from peculiar 
organization, or whether they have a separate 
and independent existence. The existence of 
such faculties being admitted, and also the 
brain, or, as some contend, the brain and spinal 
marrow, being the acknowledged seat of such 
faculties, I . now proceed to the definition of 
life. Than this, nothing has hitherto been more 
difficult, nor is it matter of surprise when it is 
considered, that the just definition of any 
subject or thing depends upon a correct know- 
ledge of it, and is a conclusion rather than a 
first principle of reasoning. The usual defini- 

D 



34 

tion of life is, that "it is the sum total of its 
functions." This definition, whatever know- 
ledge it at first appears to convey, is a mere 
waiving of the matter, as it may be asserted of 
every thing or being that it is the sum total of 
its qualities. My definition of life, a conclusion 
founded upon physiological opinions hereafter 
to be advanced, and to be maintained upon 
grounds hereafter to be jealously and suspici- 
ously scrutinized, is, that it is a relation between 
an anima or soul, and the natural laws of this 
material world. And the proper understanding 
of the mode in which this relation is accom- 
plished, with a knowledge of the uses of the 
different parts of the body in effecting this, 
constitutes the science called Physiology, a 
most important, and in practical medicine, the 
most useful, branch of the science of life. This 
definition may be objected to, on the ground 
that it is too limited for the long-accepted use 
of the term life ; it having been many years 
used to indicate, not only the life as here 
defined, but also the organic operations by 
which that vital state is accomplished. But 
to identify those operations with life, and to 
speak of a living head of a decapitated ox, 
because its muscles keep moving, or of a living 
corpse because the beard grows, is too glaring 



35 

an abuse of terms to be dwelt upon. As well 
might one be required to make a definition 
meet the sailor's abuse of the term when he 
uses that common phrase " no ship can live in 
such a sea," as to meet this abuse of a false 
philosophy. The functions of life are as distinct 
from life itself, as the powers of movement are 
distinct from motion. I have thought it neces- 
sary to be thus diffuse upon the idea of life, 
because the scientific phraseology of the day 
has, in the universal use of the terms * organic 
life/ arbitrarily but erroneously given the notion 
of two lives in an animal. 

This life, or relation between an anima and 
the material world, is effected by the jmediate 
agency of the structure and functions of the 
body, from which results that property of living 
flesh called sensibility, of which I shall now 
proceed to speak. In the investigation of this 
property, the accomplishment and support of 
which appears the first grand design of God 
in the formation of animal bodies, and the 
object to which their functions chiefly tend, a 
range of inquiry and discussion will be neces- 
sary more extensive than may be anticipated, 
and it will be found to embrace nearly the 
whole science of Physiology. 

d 2 



CHAPTER III. 

Animal sensibility — its modifications Jive — the organs 
of the Jive modifications — arteries and nerves essen- 
tial to sensibility — on the arteries — on the nerves — 
connecting observations — Proposition — Facts in 
support — an essential preliminary consideration — 
Sum or force of a Sensation is determined by three 
circumstances — enumerated— first circumstance con- 
' sidered — second circumstance considered — third cir- 
cumstance considered — Conclusion concerning these 
three circumstances — Several animal phenomena 
explained— Conclusion. 

ANIMAL sensibility is that property in 
living flesh by which the anima or soul is 
brought into a relation, or within the influence 
of the laws of the physical or material world. 
Or, in other words, it is that property by which 
impressions made upon the part endued with 
it, are transmitted to the perceiving power of 
the animal. To this definition of sensibility I 
will, to avoid a possible error, annex again the 
definition of perceptibility, and also of the terms 
denoting the exercise of these two powers. 
Perceptibility is the power of perceiving. Per- 
ception is the act of perceiving. Sensibility is 



37 

the power of conveying impressions to the 
soul. Sensation is the act of conveying im- 
pressions to the soul. From the circumstance 
of the act of sensation and the act of perception 
being simultaneous, these terms have been used 
indifferently to denote the effect of physical 
causes acting through the body upon the soul : 
but, although in ordinary discourse the terms 
have the same meaning, yet in this philosophical 
investigation, the distinction must never be 
lost sight of, otherwise the understanding may 
arrive at a most palpable error in the result. 

All sensible parts are not susceptible of the 
same physical causes which excite sensation so 
as to convey their influence to the perceiving 
power of the animal ; but the different suscep- 
tibilities to physical causes have been divided 
into the organs of touch, sight, hearing, smell 
and taste. These are all modifications of the 
same property, and are equally embraced in 
the after-reasoning upon its nature. 

In man, and all those animals wliose size 
admits of structural and functional inquiry, 
anatomy, observation and experiment teach, 
that every part possessing sensibility is sup- 
plied with arteries and nerves, and that upon 



38 

their functions this property is dependent. It 
has been reasonably enforced by Sir C. Morgan, 
that in an individual having a nervous and a 
blood-vessel system, the slightest puncture 
with a needle will cause pain, and draw blood ; 
and these effects he considers conclusive of the 
fact, that such part must be endued with nerves 
and blood-vessels, although they may not be 
discoverable by the eye and the scalpel. To 
me it appears equally conclusive, that any 
animal in which a puncture* will excite pain 
and draw blood (it may not of necessity be red) 
must be endued with these two systems. I 
therefore infer, that every animal has a nervous 
and blood-vessel system, whether they may 
have been seen by the naturalist or not. 

Arteries are elastic tubes originating from 
the heart, and ramifying throughout the whole 
animal structure, conveying a fluid, red in man 
and many animals, termed blood. The exact 
manner of their termination is a matter of 
dispute. That fluid, however, is returned to 
the heart by another set of tubes termed veins ; 
whence it is again circulated. This is the most 
simple idea of animal circulation, in which it is 
considered independent of its connection with 
the lungs. The great difference between 



39 

vegetable and animal circulation is, in the 
former consisting of a slow and gradual diffusion 
of its fluid throughout the vegetable body, while 
that of the animal is a rapid, impetuous, and 
beating torrent. 

Nerves are long white medullary chords, 
communicating with the brain and the spinal 
marrow, and distributed, as was before observed, 
to all parts endued with sensibility. They have 
long been considered the immediate organs of 
sense ; and the simple fact of a division of nerve, 
or pressure upon it, interrupting sensation, may 
serve for proof of their office being essential to 
that act. But it is equally true, that any 
interruption to the sanguiferous circulation, 
either by division of the pulsatory organ (the 
artery) or by sufficient pressure to prevent its 
flow and beating action, will equally prevent 
the act of sensation. It is therefore in their 
combined action, that an explanation of this 
property of the animal is to be sought. 

The exact nature of the operation which takes 
place between these two systems, now becomes 
a subject of inquiry, interesting in itself, and 
highly important in leading to correct views of 
the functions or uses of other organs of the 



40 

body. On a subject like the present, it would 
have been desirable that all the positions should 
have immediate proof, by direct appeal to 
evidence, or have been the logical result of 
previous reasoning : but, in the present instance, 
where the subject is so complicated and abstruse, 
the object both of the writer and of the reader 
may be much facilitated, by advancing a Pro- 
position, and giving, after directing the attention 
to some peculiar circumstances connected with 
life, the proofs of its truth. The writer will thus, 
without any sacrifice of truth, or departure from 
the just principles of logic, attain a more easy 
method ; and, by at once putting before the reader 
the object to which a consideration of these cir- 
cumstances and the after-reasoning tends, those 
imperfect anticipations and surmises of the 
author's aim, which cannot fail to distract the 
attention from the force of the argument, if 
otherwise conducted, will be prevented. 

Proposition. — In parts endued with sensibility, 
the nerves are pervaded by electric fluid, and 
the circulating blood does excite to action this 
fluid at the extremities of the nerves, and there- 
by occasions an electric vibration throughout 
their whole course, up to that part of the brain 
or spinal marrow in which is seated the per- 



41 



ceiving power. Such* a state constitutes 
sensibility, for any further impression falling 
upon the part, occasions a sufficient further 
motion to impress upon the perceptibility of 
the animal a sensitive idea. It is to be under- 
stood, that the nerves are conductors of vibra- 
tions, and not that they do actually vibrate 
themselves. 

In support, it is to be observed, that experi- 
ment proves the nerves to be conductors of 
electricity, and they are enveloped in a con- 
densed membranous coat, which is a non- 
conductor of electricity; so far the natural 
arrangement appears conformable to the pro- 
posed truth. The next question which naturally 
arises is, whether an electric shock be capable 
of producing that variety of sensation which 
the animal is capable of experiencing. Here 
the proposition has the required support, since 
an electric shock passed through the skin, gives 
the sensation of an impression of contact, through 
the eye of light, through the ear of sound, 
through the tongue of taste, and through the 
nostril of smell. 

In observing upon the proper and natural 
method of explaining the uses of a machine, it 



42 

was said, that, after pointing out the end to be 
accomplished, it was necessary to take into 
consideration the circumstances connected with 
its operation. This must now be done with 
regard to a living animal. 

It must be admitted, that the heat of the 
atmosphere, light of the sun, and sounds con- 
veyed by the air, and that savours and odours 
are determined by fixed general laws, and this 
fact is clearly demonstrated in the knowledge 
of natural philosophy. Wherefore, there must 
appear a necessity that all animals under their 
influence should perceive through organs of 
somewhat similar powers : for had things been 
perceived through organs of dissimilar powers, 
there must have prevailed a strange confusion 
of perception among animals, upon the intensity 
of any given degree of heat, light, sound, taste, 
or odour ; all general estimation by the senses 
must have been widely discordant, instead of 
that trifling difference which at present exists ; 
and no just notion of any sensitive idea could 
have been communicated among mankind, 
which is the basis of all mutual reasoning. Had 
animals perceived through organs of dissimilar 
powers, the light of the sun must have been 
intolerably luminous to some, and utter dark- 



43 

ness to others : the heat of the atmosphere 
must have produced insufferable burning, or 
have been intensely cold to the majority : while 
the vibrations of air, which give rise to sounds, 
must have produced the most astounding effect, 
or have been insufficient to have excited the 
necessary impression upon the perceptibility of 
the animal : out of myriads of sensitive beings, 
few, indeed, would have been the number of 
those to whom the laws of the natural world 
would have been a source of pleasure and safety, 
or in whom they would have admitted of a con- 
tinuance of life; while a diversity of perception 
from the same causes, would have precluded the 
use of a common language and mutual reasoning 
among mankind, by the impossibility of fixing 
definite perceptions or ideas, with particular 
words. 

The assertion, that all animals must perceive 
through similar powers, is not meant to imply 
that every living animal must be endued with 
feeling, sight, hearing, smell, and taste ; but 
that, in possessing any one of those powers, it 
must have an adaptation of its organ or organs, 
to the natural laws by which its corresponding 
act is excited. 



44 

Now, in order to comprehend how this 
similar power is constituted in the organs 
through which animals perceive, it will be 
necessary to consider the circumstances by 
which the sum or force of a sensation is deter- 
mined ; and these circumstances will be in part 
grounds for proof of the proposition advanced 
upon the nature of the operation which takes 
place between the arterial and nervous systems. 

The sum or force of a sensation, I shall be 
able to shew, is determined by three circum- 
stances, viz., by the force of the cause pro- 
ducing it — by the degree of sensibility in the 
part receiving the impression — and by the 
extent of sensible surface exposed to the action 
of the exciting cause. 

The causes exciting sensation are light, 
heat, vibrations of air, peculiar principles emit- 
ted from vegetable and other substances, termed 
savours and odours, and the direct contact of 
bodies. The whole animal creation is under 
the influence of some or all of these causes, and 
the various degrees in which they are perceived 
by the individual, make the amount of its 
sensitive knowledge or ideas. These natural 
causes are to be considered the first circum- 



45 

stances influencing the sum or force of a sen- 
sation. 

That the sum or force of a sensationis p artly 
determined by the degree of sensibility in the 
part receiving the impression, may be readily 
shown, by adverting to inflammation ; in that 
disease, sensibility becomes preternaturally 
acute, and the affected part is no longer capable 
of bearing with ease, the same impressions to 
which it had been previously accustomed. If 
the disease be situated in the e}^e, there will be 
intolerance of light ; if in the ear, of sound ; and 
the contact of bodies on other parts cannot be 
borne with the usual ease. While, on the 
contrary, in parts which have their sensibility 
diminished by bleeding, discharges, or other 
causes that weaken or interrupt the action of 
the circulation, sensation can only be excited 
by stimuli more powerful than are naturally 
requisite. Hence the degree of sensibility in 
a part, is a second circumstance determining 
the sum or force of a sensation. 

That the extent of sensible surface exposed 
to the action of the exciting cause, partly 
determines the sum or force of a sensation, is 
remarkably shown in considering the function 



46 

of the iris ; the painful sensation experienced 
from a great quantum of light admitted upon a 
large portion of the retina during the dilatation 
of the pupil, is removed, and ease and perfect 
vision restored, by its (the pupil's) contraction, 
because of the smaller surface that is then 
excited. In diseases attended with a languid 
circulation, and where the general sensibility 
of the body is consequently diminished, a 
dilatation of the pupil is naturally an accom- 
panying symptom, because, if a larger surface 
were not exposed under this change of sensi- 
bility, vision could not have been effected by 
the ordinary light : on the contrary, in diseases 
attended with a general increase of sensibility, 
the pupil is contracted, because, under this 
change, vision would have been extremely 
painful if the same extent of surface had been 
exposed, which is necessary under ordinary 
circumstances. Animals can likewise bear a 
degree of heat upon a small surface of their 
bodies, which, if applied to a larger, would 
produce considerable pain ; this may be proved 
by experiment with hot water, by immersing a 
small part of an extremity, as a hand or foot, 
in water heated to the most tolerable point, if 
the whole extremity be then plunged into this 
heated water, a painful or intolerable sensation 



47 

will be excited. In smelling and tasting, also, 
we apply savours and odours to a larger surface 
of our organs, when they do not excite suffi- 
ciently by their ordinary application. These 
examples are sufficient to show the influence 
which extent of sensible surface has, in deter- 
mining the sum or force of a sensation. 

Here the attention may be directed to the 
circumstance, that where the natural causes 
producing sensations are fixed, or but little 
subject to vary in their degree, a determinate 
degree of sensibility simply is sufficient ; but 
where the causes of sensation are subject to 
considerable changes, and to be applied under 
modified circumstances, there, an apparatus, 
acting as a regulator, is necessary for the pur- 
poses of the animal. The density of bodies, as 
influencing the sense of touch, remains the 
same ; and the thermometrical range of heat, 
capable of being distinguished by sensation, is 
inconsiderable; to those causes, therefore, a 
determinate degree of sensibility simply is 
sufficient. Animals could not be sensibly 
affected by a much greater thermometrical 
range of heat, because, by the one extreme, 
the organic operations of the body are sus- 
pended ; and, by the other, destroyed ; namely, 



48 

by intense cold and fire. Fixed degrees of 
sensibility simply, are also sufficient for the 
purposes of smelling and tasting. But there 
occur immense variations in the degree of 
light ; yet, by the eye, through the regulating- 
function of the iris, which, by exposing a larger 
or smaller surface of the retina, keeps the 
power of that organ (the eye) nearly the same ; 
under the great range from twilight to the most 
glaring degree of luminous influence, bodies 
are clearly perceived, and without pain to the 
animal. Also, the changes in the degree of 
sound, arising from the ever-varying density 
of the air, are much obviated in their effects, 
by the muscles connected with the tympanum 
having a regulating function upon that organ. 

The three circumstances enumerated, deter- 
mining together the sum or force of a sensa- 
tion, and there being an evident necessity that 
all animals inhabiting the same world and sub- 
jected to the same fixed physical laws, should 
perceive through similar powers, there becomes 
an apparent necessity for an increase of sensi- 
bility to accompany the diminution in the size 
of animals, from man downwards ; and a 
diminution of sensibility from him upwards, in 
order to bring all within the due influence 



49 

of the physical laws of the world, relative to 
heat, light, sound, &c. If animals had not 
possessed such variations in the degree of their 
respective sensibilities, it must be quite evident, 
that that light which would have been sufficient 
to excite vision in man, would have been 
insufficient to excite it in the smaller eye 
of the lesser animals; while the larger eye 
of the greater animals, would have been sub- 
jected to an immense glare. The ordinary 
warmth of the atmosphere, if of comfortable 
endurance to man and animals of his size, 
would have been intolerable heat to the very 
large animals, and absolute coldness to the 
smaller ones, if the degree of sensibility had 
been the same in all. Similar reasoning is 
applicable to the senses of hearing, smelling, 
and tasting. This increase of sensibility in the 
smaller animals, and decrease in the larger, 
then, give nearly similar powers to the whole 
animal creation, and bring all within the due 
influence of those laws, by which sensations 
are excited. Those animals, who see in what 
man terms the dark, or whose organs of hear- 
ing or smell are very acute, do not militate 
against the foregoing argument ; their powers 
of sight, hearing, and smell, being adapted to 
the natural laws of light, sound, and odour ; 

E 



50 

although, from the greater sensibility of their 
organs, they are rather sooner affected by those 
causes than other animals. 

The importance of different degrees of sen- 
sibility to animals of different size, and the 
indispensable necessity that each animal should 
have its appropriate degree to accomplish its 
suitable relation with the laws of the physical 
world, must now be sufficiently apparent. 
Whether this degree of sensibility be deter- 
mined by the force and frequency of the pulsa- 
tory circulation, or whether the force and 
frequency of the pulsatory circulation, be an 
effect of the electrical operations by which 
sensibility is accomplished, may be a subject 
of some doubt ; but, in either case, the force 
and frequency of arterial action are always 
correspondent with the degree of sensibility, 
so that they may at all times be considered the 
indication, if not the cause, of the degree of 
sensibility. Hence, we may understand why 
any unnatural increase or diminution of arterial 
action is accompanied by a destruction of that 
just relation, between the perceiving power of 
the animal and the laws of the material world, 
on which life and health are dependent. Where 
an unnatural increase of pulsatory circulation 



51 

occurs, the sensibility not only becomes in- 
creased, but the very action of the pulsating 
artery is conveyed by sensation, to the per- 
ceiving power, and constitutes the throbbing 
of inflammation. The irregular supplies of 
food to the greater part of the animal creation, 
but more particularly to that which is depend- 
ent upon prey, must occasion great variations 
in the quantity of circulating fluid ; yet this is 
not attended by any material change in the 
sensibility of the animal, because there is made 
up in frequency of circulation, what is lost in 
fulness of pulse : hence the pulse of the starv- 
ing man is always extremely small and quick, 
and nothing but food will check its action. 
Persons suffering under diseases of exhaustion, 
have also this small and quick pulse. Bleed- 
ing, in health, invariably increases the quick- 
ness of pulse, but it is not perceivable until 
the natural degree of sensibility is restored ; 
which, during the operation, is generally much 
diminished. It must also be evident, from the 
foregoing reasoning, that the infant, partaking 
of the nature of the smaller animals, has occa- 
sion for a greater degree of sensibility than the 
adult ; this is accompanied by a more rapid 
circulation, and thence the frequency of the 
infantile pulse, and not as has been represented 

e 2 



52 

by M. Bichat, from any superabundance of 
life. Hence, also, it is, that the circulation in 
small men is more active than in large ; and 
the pulse of woman, from her smaller size, is 
generally quicker than of man. If this fre- 
quency of pulse in the infant were, as M. Bichat 
has represented, from a superabundance of 
life, a reduction of it might be safely effected ; 
but if the experiment be made by reducing 
it to the frequency of an adult pulse, the in- 
fant's sensibility will be so much reduced, as 
to destroy totally its connection with the laws 
of the material world; or, in other words, it 
will cease to live. On the contrary, if we 
attempt to force the circulation of large ani- 
mals to the frequency of the smaller, we so 
completely alter their sensibility, as to unfit 
them for a proper estimation of the force of the 
natural causes to which they have been accus- 
tomed ; and hence, they neither feel nor act in 
their usual manner, but present those states 
known as drunkenness, delirium, or madness. 

There is a simplicity, beauty, and import- 
ance, in all the known laws of Nature, so far 
as they have been ascertained by philosophy, 
which would lead us to expect the same in the 
economy and structure of animals. But, in the 



53 

present received notions of life, there is found 
an useless complexity and a series of encum- 
bering operations, quite at variance with the 
nice adaptation of means to an end, and by 
which, according to present received notions, 
the animal is continually endangered, without 
any adequate utility. In treating of these 
operations in connection with this subject, the 
path to which is now rendered easy and plea- 
sant, it will appear, that where mankind have 
taken up notions at variance with great sim- 
plicity and nicety of design, such notions are 
without rational support, and are opposed by 
almost every circumstance connected with the 
opinion, as will appear as we proceed. 

Several of the following chapters, although 
the Disquisition be conducted under different 
heads, have an intimate connection with the 
present subject — Sensibility ; and proofs of the 
proposition advanced in this chapter, will be 
continued through those which follow. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Assimilating organs — the uses of food-taking— 
decomposition of the body questioned — The pre- 
servative principle of flesh, or Mr, Hunter's vital 
principle — may be exhausted — and again restored — 
What this principle is — Whence derived — Facts in 
support— On the required quantities of food — Con- 
clusion, 

THERE is in every living creature an ex- 
tepsive and important series of operations, of 
which a lengthened description and detailed 
consideration will be here unnecessary. In 
these operations, a considerable portion of 
animal structure, comprising a large assemblage 
of organs, is employed ; and they consequently 
become a matter of inquiry in connection with 
the present subject. These operations, com- 
prising digestion, nutrition, and their concomi- 
tant functions, when regarded collectively, are 
usually called the functions of assimilation; 
which terms, although they do not exactly 
meet my views of the ultimate uses of those 
operations, may be retained for the present. 
It is sufficiently reasonable to admit, that the 
functions of assimilation may be for the purpose 



55 

of advancing the growth of the body ; but why 
these functions should continue after the animal 
has attained its full size, requires a better ex- 
planation than the universally assumed, yet 
unsupported, notion, that there is a continual 
wearing away of animal structure. This opin- 
ion of the continual decomposition of the body, 
although universally received and admitted, 
appears to have arisen solely from the circum- 
stance of animals when at full growth, still 
requiring considerable supplies of food ; and 
for what purpose, physiologists were at a loss 
to conceive, unless they previously admitted 
such decomposition. 

Upon the assumption of the continually de- 
caying nature of the body, men have gone so 
far as to calculate the time during which the 
whole structure is changed ; although, I be- 
lieve, they have never determined among them- 
selves any exact period which has gained 
general assent ; but the opinion is left varying 
between the space of four and twelve years. 
Upon this assumption, also, a great deal of the 
argument between Mr. Locke and the bishop 
of Worcester, concerning personal identity, 
turns. Yet, although experiment with madder 
has shown that great changes take place in 



56 

the body (which I conceive are chiefly confined 
to the fatty deposit of the cellular structure, 
and to the fluids), I am not aware of, nor can 
I ascertain, any facts which tend to show — 
what has been so readily acceded to by phy- 
siologists — that in health, a lamina of bone is 
removed and another substituted, and that the 
fibres of a muscle are taken away by absorption, 
and others arranged by the nutritive process, 
and that the structure of arteries, veins, nerves, 
&c, are decomposed, and others formed. If 
such great revolutions were continually taking- 
place, surely a much greater obliteration of the 
marks of injuries would occur than presents on 
the examination of dead bodies. The experi- 
ment with madder is no more proof of the 
decomposition of the body, than a piece of 
flannel dyed red and immersed in some current 
of fluid until it had lost its colour, would be a 
proof of the decomposition and re-formation 
of such flannel. But here, as in other instances, 
instead of pursuing further the objections to 
this notion, time will be saved, and it will 
perhaps be better combated, by proposing and 
supporting, by appeal to facts, another opinion 
more in unison with the known simplicity 
observed in nature, and in better accordance 
with the great object of animal life. 



57 

One of the most striking phenomena of living 
bodies, particularly noticed by Mr. Hunter, is 
their property of withstanding those common 
laws of matter called chemical affinities. This 
property is intimately connected with sensi- 
bility, as is seen by a loss of sensibility always 
preceding a chemical decomposition of animal 
substance. When these chemical changes 
take place in a part of a living animal, it is 
called gangrene, or mortification, and a restora- 
tion to its former structure is never accom- 
plished : new flesh may form, but the original 
substance is converted into chemical elements, 
and thrown off from the body. There does, 
however, sometimes occur a general tendency 
to these changes, where the fluids of the body 
appear chiefly affected by it ; and when such 
a state results from fever, it is called putrid 
fever. Here, with great prostration of strength, 
and much diminished sensibility, the secretions 
in the mouth and in the whole alimentary 
canal, become extremely offensive ; the ex- 
cretions all partake of this approach to putre- 
faction, and even the whole mass of blood is 
involved in this approach to general destruc* 
tion. Exactly the same symptoms, but arising 
from another cause than fever, constitutes the 
disease known by the terms sea-scurvy. Yet, 



58 

under proper treatment, and favorable circum- 
stances, it frequently happens, that these chemi- 
cal laws of affinity become again suspended, and 
the natural healthy laws of the animal again 
restored ; the fluids regain their pristine sweet- 
ness, the sensibility its proper standard, and a 
complete restoration of animal strength and 
power is the result. There must, therefore, 
unquestionably exist in animals a power of 
generating some principle by which the che- 
mical laws of matter are subverted, and this 
principle is electric fluid, by the agency of 
which I have assumed sensibility to be effected. 
And this fluid (the electric) is elaborated from 
the received food, by the action of that series 
of organs which have hitherto been regarded as 
labouring only for the re-building of a continually 
mouldering structure. 

In support of this opinion, I may observe, 
that I have never seen a single instance of 
general putrescency where the assimilative 
functions have been tolerably natural, except 
where the food has been of defective quality. 
And a return of appetite has been the period 
from which I have always prognosticated with 
certainty, a cessation of the putrefactive process, 
and a return to animal combinations, in 



59 

those instances where putrescency has greatly 
prevailed. If digestion, and all those processes 
embraced in the notion of the assimilative 
functions, were not for the purpose I have 
assumed, but merely for the rebuilding of a 
continually decaying body, the relative supply 
of food required, should have accorded with the 
relative size of the animal : but this is not the 
case, for the smaller animals consume much 
greater relative quantities of food than the 
larger. The voracity of children is proverbial ; 
the difference in the quantity of food consumed 
by small and large men is imperceptible ; the 
larger animals are temperate ; while the smaller 
are by natural necessity voracious. These 
differences in the required relative supplies of 
food, may not perhaps be apparent, unless the 
attention be carried to, and observation made 
upon, the very large and small animals. The 
very small animals are then seen to consume 
daily a quantity of food equal, and oftentimes 
surpassing, their own bulk ; while the larger ones 
require several weeks to consume a quantity 
equal to their bulk. In proof, compare the 
relative quantities of food consumed by the 
elephant, camel, &c, with those consumed by 
wasps, beetles, flies, &c. Or taking two animals 
who feed upon the same food, observe the com- 



60 

parative quantities consumed by the rabbit and 
the horse ; the former soon consumes a quantity 
equal to its own bulk, but a quantity equal to 
the bulk of the horse would not be consumed 
by him in several weeks. An animal that is not 
kept in relation with the laws of the material 
world, by the combined action of its arterial 
and nervous system, may remain months with- 
out food, without undergoing a chemical decom- 
position, as may be observed in the dormouse, 
and other hybernating animals ; and, for a much 
longer period, as has been known of flies, which 
have remained torpid for years. On the contrary, 
animals who are excited to a preternatural 
vigilance, require unusual quantities of food. 
The required supply of food then does not 
correspond with the size of the animal, but is 
increased in the smaller, and decreased in the 
larger : sensibility has also been shown to be 
necessarily increased in the smaller, and 
decreased in the larger, animals : from these 
circumstances, and the facts of torpid animals 
living without food, while those who are pre- 
ternaturally excited, require unusual quantities, 
I am led to conclude, that the required quantity 
of food corresponds very much (although as I 
shall hereafter show, not altogether) with the 
required degree of sensibility, and hence, that 



61 

the ultimate use of the assimilative organs and 
food-taking is, the supply of electric fluid, upon 
the agency of which I have assumed sensibility 
to be dependent. 

This view of the ultimate uses of the assimi- 
lative organs will be further borne out in a 
more extended consideration of animal exist- 
ence, for which we shall hereafter be better 
prepared, by an advanced examination of the 
circumstances connected with life in the next 
part of our inquiry, as well as by a considera- 
tion of the nature of some diseases to be spoken 
of in a later part of this paper. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Lungs— -bring the blood into contact with the air 
-^supposed object of this — questioned— -and disproved 
— Animal heat— no fixed degree essential to life — 
the degree of heat an adventitious circumstance — - 
source of heat and use of the Lungs — argument in 
support—on media influencing the degree of heat — 
Fishes— Amphibia — Insects— Conclusion. 

SITUATED in, and nearly filling, the chest, 
(in man) are some fleshy sponge-like bodies, 
very permeable to air and exceedingly vascular, 
called Lungs. The evident design of these bodies, 
apparent both from their structure and function, 
is to bring into contact with the surrounding 
medium a large surface of the circulated blood. 
Of the exact chemical combinations and results 
thus effected, there is but little agreement 
among experimenters, scarcely any two in- 
quirers having come to the same conclusion. 
These organs, however, are of such considerable 
importance in the animal economy, and, unfor- 
tunately in this country, so frequently the seat 



63 

of destructive disease, that they claim on both 
accounts a deep interest and a cautious con- 
sideration. Without, therefore, entering into a 
tedious discussion of the chemical affinities 
there exercised, or considering their secondary- 
uses in the exercise of the voice, I shall proceed 
to investigate and treat of their primary use 
and importance as subservient to life. Their 
use has long been considered in connection 
with animal heat, and the most prevailing and 
commonly-received opinion is that proposed 
by the ingenious Dr. Crawford, founded upon 
Dr. Black's Theory of Latent Heat. He assumes, 
that arterial and venous blood have different 
capacities for caloric, and that the capacity is 
least in venous blood, and hence, that heat 
becomes sensible in that state ; then, as a 
quantity of heat is continually given out from 
the body, the blood passes through the hings 
in order to receive from the air materials for a 
further combustion, and the principle, thought 
to be received for that purpose, is oxygen. This 
theory, notwithstanding the supposed analogy 
between breathing and combustion, which has 
been so much dwelt upon by its supporters, is 
opposed by so many facts, requires so many 
unsupported assumptions, and is so at variance 
with nearly all the phenomena of disease, that 



64 

it cannot have been received from any convic- 
tion it carries with it, nor from any tendency 
which it has to clear up the mysteries of life. 
For, although Dr. Black has shown, and it may 
be clearly comprehended, that bodies have 
different capacities for caloric, yet it has never 
been supposed that their capacities are changed 
by mere change of situation ; and it requires 
some stretch of the imagination to suppose that 
blood in an artery, and the same blood in a vein 
has different capacities for heat. But its fallacy 
cannot be doubted, when it is reflected, that 
heat is given out in an incubated egg, in which 
case there is no constant supply of oxygen; 
and that, in cases where persons die from an 
insufficient supply of oxygen, as in those who 
breathe the gases from lime-kilns and charcoal, 
the heat of the body becomes much increased 
previous to death; and, if oxygen be here timely 
supplied, the heat diminishes and the patient 
recovers. In extensive inflammation, a much 
greater quantum of heat is evolved than in health, 
although the action of the lungs be not increased. 
Another, the most important objection to this 
theory is, that in pulmonary consumption, 
where the lungs become much wasted, the heat 
of the body, instead of being diminished, as it 
must have been if such theory had been true, 



65 

becomes increased, and the system can only 
be relieved of its superabundant caloric, by fre- 
quent and profuse perspiration. 

Some have supposed, and among the number 
Baron Cuvier, that the lungs are in proportion 
to muscular development. To this an objection 
presents in the fact that the largest-lunged dog 
(perhaps quadruped) is the grey-hound, who 
certainly is not the most muscular of that species. 
This animal also presents an insuperable oppo- 
sition to the lungs being for the purpose of 
supporting animal heat, because in his large- 
lunged existence is found one of the most chilly 
animals of the dog-tribe. 

Numerous as have been the experiments 
instituted for the purpose of determining the 
chemical changes which take place in the lungs, 
and multiform as have been the results of the 
inquiries, but little has been established so as 
to gain a general assent. It has been how- 
ever shewn, from experiment, that the same 
chemical changes which take place in the 
lungs occur on the skin ; it is therefore highly 
probable that the lungs have merely an ex- 
tended function of the skin, and there is no 
more reason to conclude that they are for 

F 



66 

generating heat, than that the skin has a func- 
tion for that purpose. 

On a general survey of the living creation, it 
has been observed, that the natural temperature 
is much varied ; and writers upon this subject 
have remarked, that those animals who do not 
breathe have a temperature very little higher 
than the medium in which they live, while 
man, and those animals who do breathe, have a 
temperature considerably higher than the 
atmosphere, and that birds, who breathe in a 
steill greater degree, have even a higher tempe- 
rature than man and quadrupeds. These cir- 
cumstances have been considered the strongest 
proofs of the utility of the lungs in supporting 
animal heat. The establishment of truth being 
the best refutation of error, I shall, instead of 
shewing here the objections to this opinion, 
proceed at once to explain the source of heat 
in a living animal, and shall submit those cir- 
cumstances which are opposed to the present 
prevailing theory, as they may arise. 

There is no particular temperature which can 
be said to be essential to life, because it is seen 
so much varied throughout the series of living 
beings. The natural temperature should there- 



67 

fore be considered an adventitious circumstance, 
and an explanation sought as such. The facts, 
that heat is not given out if the action of the 
arteries be suspended — that pressure upon a 
nerve is attended with coldness of the part 
supplied by it — and that any unnatural increase 
of circulation, whether local or general, is 
attended by a corresponding increase of tem- 
perature — are circumstances which support the 
opinion of the source of heat being in that 
operation between the arterial and nervous 
systems, from which the sensibility of animals 
results ; while the fact of heat being given 
out in considerable quantities from the lungs 
does seem to determine their function to be 
the cooling of the body by exposing the blood 
in a large surface to the air : and I shall, 
without embarrassing the subject with the 
supposed chemical changes which occur in the 
lungs, proceed to prove that such is the exist- 
ing economy of the animal. 

Although it may be doubted whether breath- 
ing be for the purpose of carrying off the super- 
abundant heat of the animal, yet no such doubt 
exists on the use of perspiration ; the utility 
of which, in cooling the body, is now universally 
admitted. In those animals, however, whose 

f 2 



68 

nature it is, not to transpire, of which the dog 
is a familiar instance, the cooling process is 
evidently effected by the lungs ; his quick and 
laborious breathing after running, ceasing only 
as the body becomes cool. Now, if respira- 
tion had been for the purpose of supporting 
animal temperature, surely this hurried function 
of the lungs, where the heat was already too 
great, must have been unnecessary; and, to 
suppose their function reversed under those 
circumstances, would be taking a most unjusti- 
fiable latitude of argument. 

To explain an effect common to life, its 
source should be sought in some operation 
common to the nature of all animals : now, 
although all animals generate heat, yet they 
do not all breathe ; it would be impossible, 
therefore, to explain the source of heat in non- 
respiratory animals, from the oxygen they 
consume. All living beings must, however, 
be endued with sensibility : in considering 
animal heat as evolved during the operation 
by which sensibility is accomplished, we 
have, therefore, a source of it in all animals ; 
in which respect it has an evident advantage 
over the commonly-received theory. Hitherto 
we have considered only the inhabitants of the 



69 

air ; there are other animals which now claim 
our attention in connection with the present 
subject : in treating of them we must revert 
to the laws of natural philosophy as ascertained 
and admitted by experiment and reason. 

It is a well-established fact, that sounds are 
more powerful, conveyed through a dense than 
through a rare medium ; this is proved by 
observing how much further any given degree 
of sound may be heard along water than 
through the air, and through the denser media 
of wood and iron, than through either air or 
water ; while the vibrations of sound made in 
the receiver of an air-pump become less audible 
as the air is exhausted and becomes rarer. 
iEronauts have remarked, that when at a great 
elevation, they lose their power of hearing ; 
this is a deception in acoustics, as that power, 
considered abstractedly, is not altered; but the 
rarity of the air, which has less power of con- 
veying sounds, leads to the imperfection in 
hearing. In a late ascent to the summit of 
Mont Blanc, the adventurers observed that 
one of the most remarkable features of their 
situation was the universal stillness. It was 
observed, by a celebrated traveller, that one 
of the most singular circumstances which struck 



70 

him in visiting the falls of Niagara, was the 
distance at which persons might be heard even 
when speaking low : in this district there is 
always a very dense state of atmosphere. The 
density of transparent bodies has also an in- 
fluence upon light, as is seen in the laws of 
refraction. And that the medium through 
which the sense of feeling is affected has con- 
siderable influence, may be proved by the 
different degrees of heat which can be borne 
when applied through the different media of 
water, vapour, and air : the body will bear 
about one hundred degrees of heat through 
water, one hundred-and- thirty through vapour, 
and about two hundred through the rarer medium 
of air. 

Now, as animals are so much more easily 
affected through a dense than through a rare 
medium, they whose natural element is the 
dense medium of water, will require, to place 
them in a proper relation with the laws of 
heat, light, sound, &c, a much lower degree 
of sensibility than those animals whose natural 
element is the rarer medium of air. If, then, 
the operation from which sensibility results be 
the source of heat, and animals dwelling in the 
dense medium of water require low degrees 



71 

of sensibility, it results as a necessary conse- 
quence that but little heat will be generated, 
and hence those animals will have blood of so 
low a temperature as to be termed cold-blooded, 
and to them lungs would be useless. The 
nature and functions of these animals accord 
with all that has been advanced upon the uses 
of organization ; they have a languid circula- 
tion, generate but little heat, consume but 
small relative quantities of food, and soon 
undergo the putrefactive process after death : 
and their assimilative organs bear a very small 
proportion to their bulk. [These facts may be 
observed in a contemplation of the nature of 
fishes.] 

There is another class of animals capable 
of living both in the dense medium of water 
and in the rarer medium of air. The natural 
history and habits of these animals (amphibiae) 
further support these opinions of the uses of the 
assimilative functions, the source of heat, and the 
use of the lungs. In these animals, the lungs have 
been considered (without sufficient reason) to 
be under the influence of the will, but whether 
this be the case or not, it is clearly a matter 
of fact that they are used when dwelling in 
the rarer medium of air, and fall into disuse 



72 

in the dense medium of water. This can hardly 
be allowed to arise from caprice in the animal, 
and it is still more difficult to admit it an 
useless arrangement of the Great Designer 
of their being. But, keeping in mind the known 
circumstance of sensations being more easily 
excited through the dense medium of water, 
and consequently the lesser degree of sensibi- 
lity required in that situation, and the further 
consequence of a lesser evolution of heat, it 
becomes easy to perceive that the lungs become 
quiescent in the water because their use is no 
longer required. But when those animals are 
subjected to extraordinary excitement, even 
in this dense medium, they are under the ne- 
cessity of occasionally rising to the surface to 
cool by breathing, their heated blood, as is 
observed in the otter when hunted, and in the 
whale : this breathing is termed blowing. The 
higher degree of sensibility required in the 
rarer medium of air, and the consequent greater 
generation of heat, renders a regular and unre- 
mitting breathing necessary on land. [Thus 
we have a rational explanation of the pheno- 
mena of amphibious animals]. 

It is difficult to estimate the breathing 
structure of insects by an appeal to anatomy, 



73 

but experiment and reason prove the extensive 
permeability of their bodies to air, without 
which they cannot live ; and it has been proved 
by Spallanzani, that they deteriorate a greater 
relative quantity of air than the larger animals. 
These animals, dwelling in the rare medium of 
air, must of necessity, from the smallness of 
their bodies, have great degrees of sensibility : 
they must consequently generate great heat, 
breathe extensively, consume great relative 
quantities of food, have large abdominal 
development, and they will be late in the 
chemical decomposition of their bodies after 
death. [These facts may be observed in con- 
templating the nature of insects]. 

There is another property of living animals 
now claiming our attention as essential to the 
knowledge of individual life, and a necessary 
preliminary to an extended understanding of 
the general principles of animal existence : this 
property is muscular motion — the subject of the 
next chapter. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Muscular motion — consists in the simple property of 
contracting — is dependent upon nervous agency — 
Electric fluid is capable of exciting muscles to con- 
tract — Dr. lire's experiment — Argument and facts 
in support of the identity of electric fluid and the 
natural cause of muscular contraction — Concluding 
remarks. 

THE multiplicity of actions in living bodies 
may at first appear to involve this subject in 
great difficulties, but when it is known that 
the immense variety of motions — the slow 
progression of the large unwieldy animals, the 
elephant, rhinoceros, &c. — the amazingly rapid 
progression of some of the smaller animals — 
the easy and graceful actions of the dancer — 
the sweet smile of satisfaction — the laugh of 
merriment — the quivering lip of fear — the sar- 
castic sneer of scorn — the beating action of the 
heart — the ever-labouring motions of breathing 
— the peristaltic movement of the stomach and 
intestines, the absorbents and lacteals — are 
the result of one simple property of flesh, this 
rough and discouraging prospect becomes a 
path of comparatively easy ascent. Of the 



75 

ultimate molecules of muscles, we know no 
more than of the infinitesimal particles of other 
matter, but to our inquiry it is sufficient to 
consider muscles as fibrous flesh possessing 
the property of contracting ; they are called 
voluntary or involuntary as they are depend- 
ent or not upon the influence of the will for 
the exercise of their contractile powers. Of 
whichever class they may be, whether de- 
pendent upon the will or not, nervous agency 
is necessary to their action, since the division 
of the nerve supplying a muscle or pressure 
upon it, will totally suspend or interrupt its 
function of contracting. Experience teaches 
also that an evolution of heat is a constant 
accompaniment to the exercise of these organs. 
The property of contracting in muscles was 
not known to have any connexion with the 
common laws of physics, until, by accident, 
Professor Galvani, of Bologna, observed the 
muscles of some frogs, which had been skinned 
for experiment, were convulsed, or showed re- 
peated contractions, every time a spark was 
taken in some electric experiments. Since 
this discovery, animal motion has been sup- 
posed to be in some manner dependent upon 
a fluid, some- of the phenomena of which were 
before known, and having been first observed 



76 

in electrum or amber was called electric fluid. 
After this discovery of Galvani, it has been 
called, especially when used in animal experi- 
ment, Galvanic fluid. Since this time, the 
power of electric or Galvanic fluid in exciting 
muscular contraction has been fully admitted, 
and numerous experiments have been made 
with it, but the most striking example of its 
influence is to be found in the experiment 
made by Dr. Ure of Glasgow, which is in sub- 
stance thus recorded : — 

"The subject of this experiment (a mur- 
derer) was a middle-sized, athletic and ex- 
tremely muscular man, about thirty years of age. 
He was suspendedfromthe gallows nearlyan hour. 
The voltaic battery consisted of two hundred 
and seventy pair of four-inch plates, which were 
brought into intense action with a dilute nitro- 
sulphuric acid. A pointed rod, connected with 
one end of the battery, was applied to the pos- 
terior part of the spinal marrow at the atlas 
vertebra, while the other rod was applied to 
the sciatic nerve. Every muscle of the body 
was immediately agitated with convulsive 
movements, resembling a violent shuddering 
from cold. The second rod was then applied 
to a small cut made in the heel, the knee being 



77 

previously bent ; the leg was thrown out with 
such violence as nearly to overturn one of the 
assistants, who in vain endeavoured to prevent 
its extension. 

" By transmitting the Galvanic influence 
through the phrenic nerve in the neck, and 
making a communication by the application 
of a rod to the great head of the diaphragm, 
this muscle, the main agent of respiration, was 
instantly contracted, but with less force than 
was expected. By a different mode of appli- 
cation of the Galvanic influence, full and labo- 
rious breathing instantly commenced ; the 
chest heaved and fell, the belly was protruded, 
and again collapsed with the relaxing and re- 
tiring diaphragm. The supra-orbital nerve 
was laid bare in the forehead ; one conducting 
rod being applied to it and the other to the 
heel, most extraordinary grimaces were exhi- 
bited every time the electric discharges were 
made. By running the wire in my hand along 
the edges of the last trough, from the two 
hundred and twentieth to the two hundred and 
twenty-seventh pair of plates, every muscle in the 
countenance was simultaneously thrown into 
fearful action ; rage, horror, despair, anguish, 
and ghastly smiles, united their hideous ex- 



78 

pression in the murderer's face, surpassing the 
wildest representations of a Fuseli or Kean. 
At this period, several of the spectators were 
forced to leave the room from terror and sick- 
ness, and one gentleman fainted. 

"By transmitting the electric power from 
the spinal marrow to the ulnar nerve, as it 
passes by the internal condyle at the elbow:, 
the fingers were nimbly moved like those of a 
violin performer; an assistant who tried to close 
the fist found the hand to open in spite of his 
efforts. When the one rod was applied to a 
slight incision in the top of the fore-finger, that 
finger extended instantly ; and, from the con- 
vulsive agitation of the arm, he seemed to point 
at the different spectators, some of whom thought 
he had come to life." 

The agency of electricity, in exciting both 
the voluntary and involuntary muscles to con- 
traction, is here decisive, and the identity of 
that fluid, with the agency by which it is per 
formed in a living animal, may be fairly 
assumed, if not fully proved, upon the following 
grounds. Muscular exertion is always attended 
by an evolution of heat, and the same circum- 
stance always accompanies electrical operations. 



79 

In those instances where a supply of electricity- 
is interrupted, either by deficient quantity, or 
deteriorated quality of the food, or by imper- 
fection of the digestive and assimilative func- 
tions, or where electricity is unnaturally 
exhausted, either by febrile or inflammatory 
diseases, or by excesses, there is always 
accompanying great muscular weakness. And 
an excessive exertion of this property (muscular 
contractility) is attended with all the concomi- 
tants of exhausted electricity — the over-excited 
animal loses in an instant its sensibility, and 
consequently its relation with the laws of the 
material world, the contractility of its muscular 
fibre becomes extinct, and its flesh remains 
flabby, its blood will not coagulate, and it 
immediately putrifies or runs into chemical 
decomposition, as is exemplified in animals 
who drop down dead from over-exertion, as 
race-horses, hares, greyhounds, &c. This state 
is exactly similar to that produced by exhaus- 
tion of the electric fluid, by excessive arterial 
action. Destruction by lightning sometimes 
produces the same features in dead animals. 

That that faculty of the animal which is 
recognized in the act of volition is capable of 
projecting electric fluid to the muscles may 



so 

readily be admitted, upon principles of the 
closest and most correct analogy, when it is 
known that some animals are capable of pro- 
jecting it at will from their bodies, and 
producing its powerful paralysing effect, as is 
well authenticated in the accounts of the 
torpedo, gymnotus, and silurus electricus. 
The natural histories of these animals afford 
truths which give a reflective brightness to the 
previous reasoning upon the ultimate uses of 
the assimilative functions and food-taking. 
"They become, from over excitation, much 
impaired in all their electrical and animal 
powers, and fall into a torpid state, from which 
they do not recover and regain their electric 
powers, without long rest and considerable 
supplies of food : " which latter circumstance 
is proof of the source from which their electric 
power is derived ; and it is universally known, 
that exhausted muscular power is only capable 
of being restored from the same source. 

Those muscles, or muscular organs, which 
are not designed for loco-motion, but whose 
movements (termed organic) are essential to 
the support of those operations which immedi- 
ately keep the animal in a proper relation with 
the laws of the material world, are placed 



81 

independent of the will, and have their electrical 
influence through a separate and distinct system 
of nerves, and their electrical influence is 
directed by causes purely physical : while all 
voluntary muscles have an immediate nervous 
connexion with the brain or spinal marrow, 
and their exertion is influenced by a recognized 
faculty of the soul, the action of which is termed 
volition. 

A close analogy bearing upon this, is the 
influence of nerves in accomplishing digestion, 
which has been proved by Dr. Wilson Philip ; 
and his experiments give a decided proof, that 
the nerves are pervaded by some subtle principle 
which he infers to be identical with electric 
fluid. He is also of opinion, that in its applica- 
tion to arterial blood, it is capable of occasion- 
ing an evolution of heat. The experiments of 
Mr. Brodie go also to prove the cerebral or 
nervous system to be the source of heat. 

It should appear, therefore, that in the living 
animal there are three series of electrical 
operations, and consequently, three distinct 
sources of heat. First, that constant state of 
electric excitement which preserves a continual 
electrical influence toward the soul, and con- 

G 



82 

stitutes sensibility : this is the constant and 
great cause of animal temperature. Secondly, 
that occasional state of electrical excitement, 
which, by an influence from the soul, termed 
volition, accomplishes muscular motion : this 
is an occasional cause of great increased animal 
temperature. Thirdly, that electrical excite- 
ment which by a purely physical influence 
accomplishes the organic movements essential 
to life ; and which also influences the animal 
changes which occur in digestion, &c. : this is a 
constant but minor cause of animal temperature. 
These three series of electrical operations, the 
physiological researches of the present day, 
particularly those of Mr. Bell, are demon- 
strating to be accomplished by three distinct 
systems of nerves. 



CHAPTER VII. 

He-view of facts and proof of proposition — The simul- 
taneous existence and destruction of the physical pro- 
perties of living animals — A clear intelligible and 
rational view of a living animal — and of the animal 
creation generally — A practical inference, 

NOW, to condense the spirit of the foregoing 
facts, and to sum up into a narrower compass 
for re-view the force of the accompanying 
argument, in which is involved the proof of 
the proposition on the operation which takes 
place between the arterial and nervous systems 
in accomplishing sensibility. 

The observation and experiments of mankind 
in latter years, have discovered, in the physical 
world, a subtle agent w r hich they have termed 
electric fluid. Whether this principle has an 
exact correspondency with our idea of fluidity, 
and, if so, whether the term electric be the 
most appropriate word to designate it by, are 
matters of trifling importance in this place. 
This principle (designated by them the electric 
fluid) has the property, if passed through a 

g 2 



84 

living animal body, of making a strong impres- 
sion upon the perceiving power of the soul ; 
and the nature of that impression, as may be 
ascertained by experiment, is altered by the 
organ of sense through which it is transmitted ; 
so, that if it be through the skin, it gives an 
impression of contact ; if through the ear, of 
sound; if through the eye, of light; if through 
the nostril or mouth, of odour or taste. This 
principle has the property also, when trans- 
mitted through the nervous system to muscles, 
of exciting them to contraction; the act for 
which they are naturally designed. The phe- 
nomena of this principle are also always ac- 
companied by an evolution of heat. And some 
experiments of Sir Humphry Davy, prove its 
power of restraining chemical affinities. While 
the fact of its being given out voluntarily for 
defence by some animals, shows its capability 
of being subjected to the will. Now, as the 
phenomena of animal life can be so clearly 
understood, and so readily explained by the 
agency of a subtle principle having these 
powers, it is, if those properties of the animal 
are found to have a simultaneous being, and 
consequently a dependence upon one common 
cause, a correct inference, upon the purest and 
most legitimate exercise of reason, that this 



85 

fluid (the electric) is the identical agent by 
which those properties of animals are main- 
tained. 

In a healthy living animal, those properties 
of which we have been treating have a simulta- 
neous existence. And, serving both as proof 
and illustration of the simultaneous destruction 
of these properties, and consequently of their 
dependence upon one common cause, may be 
brought forward those animals who die by 
lightning, in which case their electricity is 
sometimes suddenly and instantaneously ex- 
hausted ; and, as suddenly and instantaneously 
are destroyed their sensibility, muscular con- 
tractility, their power of generating heat, and 
of restraining chemical affinities. In a future 
examination of Disease, we shall be able to 
trace a simultaneous gradual destruction, and 
simultaneous gradual revival, of these properties 
in animals. 

But, to bring these opinions to the test of 
experience, the touch-stone of truth, it will be 
desirable to examine fairly, whether they afford 
a clear, intelligible, rational, and useful idea 
of a living animal; and whether the pheno- 
mena of life, in health and disease, be not 



86 

better comprehended and understood, and a 
more rational basis formed for the practice of 
medicine, than upon any notions of life yet 
advanced. We may then proceed to discuss fully 
the doctrine of Materialism, and to inquire 
whether the notion of a future existence, and 
that in accordance with the general language 
of the Christian Scriptures, and the express 
language of the apostle Paul, be compatible 
with the truths of philosophy. 

The opinions afforded by the foregoing rea- 
soning are — that in every living animal, there 
are certain faculties or attributes to which, 
when considered abstractedly, may be appro- 
priated the term * anima' or 6 soul' — that life 
consists of a relation between such attributes 
and the physical laws of the material world — 
that the body is the medium or instrument by 
which such relation is accomplished — that 
sensibility, muscular contractility, the organic 
movements, and animal combinations, depend 
upon the agency of electric fluid — that the 
ulterior use of food-taking is the supply of 
electric fluid — that the rapid circulation in 
animals is always in accordance with their degree 
of sensibility— that in the operation between 
the arterial and nervous systems as well as in 



87 

muscular contraction and organic movements, 
heat is evolved — and that the use of the lungs 
is to cool the body. 

Upon these opinions, we do attain a clear, 
intelligible, and rational idea of a living animal 
individually ; and we attain a clear, intelligible, 
and rational view of the animal creation in 
general. Casting our eyes around, we see a 
vast assemblage of living beings, varying in 
shape, size, and structure, in their capacities 
and habits; inhabiting all nature, spreading over 
the face, and delving into the inmost recesses 
of the earth, rising and teeming in the circum- 
ambient atmosphere, diving into the deep bosom 
of ocean, and crowding with their presence 
even the fluids we are destined to drink, and 
the food we exist upon ; each being equally 
perfect in itself, having an organized body 
adapted to its destined habits, and suited to its 
wants and situation. In every individual of this 
immense congregation, we recognize the power 
of perceiving, and therefore, take thatfaculty as 
the great distinguishing feature of this order of 
being. We have a perfect example of life, in 
every being having an established relation be- 
tween its faculty or power of perceiving and 
any of the natural laws of the material world ; 



88 

while the more extended relation with those 
physical laws made by the super-addition of 
other organs of sense, afford us varieties of 
animated beings at once wonderful and instruc- 
tive, wonderful in one intelligent principle 
perceiving through several sensible organs, and 
instructive, in that it leads us to the opinion of 
its capacity for more, and even an indefinite 
number of sensible organs. The complicated 
structure and varied functions which anatomy 
and observation present to our consideration, 
we regard as all tending to the support (being 
servient or subservient to the convenience) of 
this relation (or life). The bony fabric of our 
frame is the well-adjusted foundation of the 
super-structure of the body ; the voluntary 
and involuntary muscles, the simple instru- 
ments of animal and organic movement ; the 
structure and functions of the brain and nerves, 
the heart and arteries, the veins, the mouth 
with its glandular appendages, the stomach and 
intestines, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys and 
bladder, the functional power of the skin, the 
absorbents and lacteals, we regard as all 
labouring in the support of this relation between 
the soul and the physical laws of the material 
world. The animal organs or instruments 
adapted to the laws of the ever-varying light 



89 

and sound, we see furnished with regulators to 
keep their powers constantly fit for accom- 
plishing this relation. We do not acknowledge 
an unnecessary and useless decomposition and 
re-formation of living bodies, nor do we suppose 
animals encumbered by a complicated organi- 
zation (the pulmonary apparatus) for the 
purpose of making them warm-blooded, a 
circumstance unnecessary to existence, and 
therefore regarded by us as adventitious. We 
know the cause why infants have a very rapid 
circulation, hasty digestion, and high tempe- 
rature ; also, why they have greater relative 
abdominal development, and consume such 
greater relative supplies of food, and why all 
these processes and results diminish, as the 
animal increases in size. We learn also, why 
the larger animals have relative slow circulation, 
and comparative small abdominal development, 
and consume small relative supplies of food. 
We perceive why animals are not all warm- 
blooded, and that it does not arise, as has been 
supposed, from caprice in their Designer, but is 
a necessary consequence resulting from the 
situation in which they are placed by Him, of 
infinite wisdom and power. These opinions, 
therefore, afford at 4east as clear, intelligible, 
and rational an idea of a living animal, as any 



90 

theory heretofore given ; and I shall, in the next 
chapter, proceed to inquire, whether it be not 
more useful in explaining the phenomena of 
disease, and in forming the basis of practical 
medicine, than any notion of life heretofore 
advanced. 

In the mean time, I must observe, that the 
first practical inference to be drawn from these 
opinions, is one of so much importance, that it 
should be indelibly imprinted in the minds of 
all medical practitioners, and enforced in every 
school of medical science in the kingdom, viz : 
that where the sensibility of the animal is correct 
there the pulse is correct. There is no practice 
in medicine so fatal and destructive as an 
officious interference with the pulse. How 
often do we see all the efforts directed to 
reduce the frequent pulse of exhausted patients? 
And yet this more frequent beating of their 
arteries is the salutary effort of the animal 
economy to keep up the requisite sensibility of 
the individual, as we see in the starving man, 
and in the woman almost dead from excessive 
uterine haemorrhage. Transfusion of blood from 
another person, or gradual repletion of the 
circulating system by nutriment, are the only 
effectual means of producing a desirable and 



91 

permanent reduction of pulse in these cases. 
The effect of digitalis and other medicines 
directly sedative to the arterial system, is to 
produce in these cases with diminished arterial 
action, coldness of the extremities and surface, 
indistinct vision and hearing, (which from its 
resembling that indistinct sensation experienced 
from turning the head very quickly round, is 
called vertigo) faintness, and if given very 
largely, death. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Pathology, — Its object — Inflammation — Fever- 
Typhus — a result of fever — its forms — Sea-scurvy— 
Fainting — Hectic fever-— Consumption — Some other 
Diseases — Conclusion . 

THE utility of a doctrine of life as the basis 
of practical medicine, consists chiefly in its 
affording a rational explanation of the pheno- 
mena of disease, upon which only can be 
founded a rational method of cure. In testing 
the truth of these opinions by an appeal to 
experience in disease, I shall, instead of taking 
the symptoms of any given malady, and then 
explaining how they may be supposed to arise 
upon the principles herein maintained, trace 
what would naturally result from certain dis- 
orders of the animal functions, if these opinions 
be true ; and if such phenomena should accord 
with the acknowledged descriptions of diseases, 
it will afford both a proof of the truth and 
utility of this doctrine of life. 

In the first place, if there should occur an 
unnatural increase of action in a sensible part, 



93 

there would necessarily be an accompanying 
unnatural increase of those phenomena which 
have been supposed to arise from the combined 
action of the arterial and nervous systems ; 
these are the properties of sensibility and heat : 
this unnatural degree of sensibility would 
unfit the part for bearing those impressions 
which at other times it had borne with ease ; 
and the organic operations, which in a natural 
state of the sensibility are not perceived, would 
now become apparent to the perceptibility of 
the animal ; and hence a tormenting sensation 
of throbbing, and burning, and a great tender- 
ness on contact : these phenomena with swell- 
ing, and in red-blooded animals increased red- 
ness, both natural results of an unnatural ful- 
ness of the vessels, would constitute a disease, 
which has been called Inflammation. This is 
the greatest extent in which M. Bichat's mean- 
ing can be justly received, when he asserts 
that organic may be changed into animal 
sensibility. This disease of increased sensibility 
occurring in the organs of seeing, hearing, 
smell, or taste, will in the first two produce 
intolerance of the physical laws by which 
seeing and hearing are effected, and in the^last 
two, the powers of discriminating savours and 
odours will be destroyed. If it occur in the 



94 

stomach, liver, lungs, kidneys, bladder, intes- 
tines, or heart, it will, besides the painful 
affection and increased heat, be accompanied 
by such interruption of the functions of those 
organs as is seen in the study of diseases ; but 
upon which it will be unnecessary for me to 
dwell. Further, if the unnatural action be 
so much increased as to exhaust the electric 
fluid faster than the animal powers can supply 
it, the sensibility and heat will, in such case, 
become intensely increased, and then suddenly 
cease, and the principle being exhausted by 
which chemical affinities had been restrained 
and heat evolved, those affinities will now be 
exerted, and all the phenomena of putrefaction 
will present themselves : this will give all the 
characters of mortification — loss of sensibility, 
coldness, and a return to chemical affinities. 
This result of disease will be most likely to 
occur in children, from the rapid expenditure 
of electricity in them for the support of their 
lives ; or in very old persons, where the diges- 
tive powers, the source of its elaboration from 
food, are become weak ; or in persons of in- 
temperate habits, whose digestive powers have 
been prematurely impaired ; or in persons of a 
depraved state of body from other causes. 



95 

Should this unnatural increase of action be 
general, there would necessarily result an 
unnatural increase of sensibility generally, 
together with a general increase of heat ; this 
latter symptom would not only be experienced 
upon the surface of the body, but the respired 
air would be returned much hotter than usual : 
while the organs of sense being all altered in 
their powers, the individual would not perceive 
with his usual correctness, nor would he con- 
sequently retain, compare, compound, and 
abstract, nor will, nor feel in his passions and 
affections, as he was wont to do in his usual 
and natural state of sensibility ; hence his 
conduct would present those aberrations which 
in fever (the subject in contemplation) is called 
delirium. The same temporary aberrations 
are observed where the sensibility is altered by 
intoxicating liquors : and some drugs having a 
powerful effect on the sensibility also produce 
this state. Local inflammation, if of consider- 
able extent, is accompanied by an increase of 
heat in the body generally, also by an 
increase of heat in the respired air, and a 
hurried state of the circulation ; these then con- 
stitute symptomatic, or sympathetic fever. As in 
inflammation, so in a general increase of circu- 
lation, if the exhaustion of electricity be greater 



96 

than the animal powers can supply, there must 
result a general tendency to insensibility and 
putrefaction, great muscular debility, and cold- 
ness ; this is the modified stage of fever to which 
the term typhus is applicable. 

The many discrepancies in opinion concern- 
ing the nature of typhus fever, and the variety 
and opposite treatment adopted in its cure, 
result from the obscurity which has over- 
hung the nature of fever in general. Typhus 
fever is by no means that regular and 
* unvarying disease, which, like small-pox, 
measles, and scarlatina, will admit a general 
description of its course. The term typhus, is 
applicable only to a state which is the result 
of disorder, and this result may be the conse- 
quence of several derangements in the animal 
economy. The symptoms which are embraced 
in my idea of the term typhus, are, diminished 
sensibility, great muscular weakness, coldness 
of extremities and surface, the secretions and 
excretions putrefactive, the mental powers 
much diminished, and a general tendency to 
putrefaction in the solids, so that wounds 
become gangrenous, and blistered parts mortify. 
Now let me ask those who are conversant with 
the nature, history, and course of Disease, 



97 

whether this state, as connected with fever, 
does not present itself under many forms, 
among which are the following :— 

A man in perfect health, and of great strength, 
is suddenly seized with pain in the head from 
what is called a coup de soleil, or from some 
cause not apparent. He exhibits, in a little 
time, all the symptoms of phrenitis and fever, 
great increase of arterial action, great increase 
of heat, great increase of sensibility, so as to be 
intolerant of light, sound, and heat, high 
delirium, and, if he exerts his muscular powers, 
great muscular energy. In a few hours, perhaps 
seventy or eighty, or even less, especially in 
tropical climates, when this unnatural state has 
much exhausted the electricity of the body, 
his state presents the symptoms of typhus — 
diminished sensibility, great muscular weak- 
ness, coldness of extremity and surface, the 
secretions and excretions putrefactive, low 
delirium, and a general tendency to putrefac- 
tion in the solids if wounded or blistered. 

A man not very healthy or strong, subject 
perhaps to many symptoms of dyspepsia, and 
of an irritable habit, sleeps in damp sheets, is 
exposed to a cold rain in travelling, or, perhaps, 

H 



98 

while under an unusual course of exertion, gets 
his feet wet, and soon after, perhaps a day or 
two, has fever, unaccompanied by any very 
high degree of excitement. This does not 
subside so soon as might be expected ; and, 
after continuing perhaps a fortnight, he presents 
the gradually increasing symptoms of typhus 
— diminished sensibility, muscular weakness, 
coldness of extremities and surface, the secre- 
tions and excretions putrefactive, mental powers 
much diminished, and a general tendency to 
.putrefaction in wounds or blistered places. 

Another very common course of disease, afford- 
ing typhus as a result, is that embraced in Dr. 
Hamilton's excellent and concise description : 
" Some derangement of the stomach, marked 
by loss of appetite, thirst, sickness, white or 
loaded tongue, disagreeable taste in the mouth, 
and most commonly a constipation of the 
bowels — precedes head-ache, languor, debility, 
and inaptitude for the usual mental and bodily 
exertions ; morbid affections of the surface of 
the body, of the sanguiferous system, and of 
different secretions, soon succeed ; to which, in 
the more advanced stage, delirium, subsultus 
tendinum, floccitatio, and singultus supervene." 
[See p. 31, seventh edition.] 



99 

In crews, garrisons, or any collections of 
men where provision is short or deteriorated, 
all their febrile diseases do, in the advanced 
stages, present symptoms of typhus. 

After a wet and bad harvest, where the corn 
has been deteriorated by germination, febrile 
diseases have a tendency to afford rapidly the 
symptoms of typhus, more especially among 
those whose diet is chiefly farinaceous. 

Contagion, and some poisons whose modes 
of acting are not understood, but which pro- 
bably exhaust very suddenly the animal elec- 
tricity, do afford rapidly the symptoms of 
typhus. 

From this, it must appear, that- the terms 
'Typhus Fever,' are not expressive of a peculiar 
and regular disease, but that they merely indi- 
cate those fevers accompanied with the symp- 
toms embraced in the term 'Typhus'; whether 
from cold, contagion, the ordinary effects of 
fever in debilitated constitutions, or any other 
cause. Typhus may also be seen to accompany 
measles, small-pox, scarlatina, or any other 
febrile disease. And the sympathetic fever 
accompanying local mortification, is marked 

h 2 



100 

by the symptoms of typhus. The next subject 
of consideration, in prosecuting these views, 
embraces the circumstances connected with 
life and food, and this will afford an instance 
of typhus without fever. 

It has been maintained in this Disquisition, 
that the source of animal electricity is food. 
If then, from long keeping, or other unfavour- 
able circumstances, the food upon which a 
crew were subsisting had suffered a great loss 
erf that principle known by its approach to 
putrefaction, it would be a necessary conse- 
quence, that the animal powers of those who 
suffered this deprivation should suffer in all 
those points which depend upon electricity for 
their support : hence great muscular weakness, 
an approach to insensibility, faintness, a pu- 
trescent tendency in the fluids, coldness of 
body, putrefaction of wounds and blistered 
places, and sudden death on slight exertion, 
would be the natural result. Such a state, 
under such circumstances, does occur, and 
constitutes the disease termed Sea-scurvy ; in 
which is seen typhus without fever. [See Lord 
Anson's Voyages : or refer to any history and 
description of this disease.] 



101 

If the action of the circulation be interrupt- 
ed, or suspended, by sudden loss of blood, by 
disease of the heart, or any other cause, there 
must necessarily result an interruption or sus- 
pension of sensibility, and there will be im- 
perfect, or total destruction of, vision; indis- 
tinct, or total destruction of, hearing ; loss of 
smell, taste, and touch ; the power of the will 
over the muscles will also be impaired or de- 
stroyed ; and there will be coldness of the 
body : such a state does occur from those 
causes, and is called Fainting or Syncope. 
The revival from this state presents the natural 
order of the series of the vital operations, and 
further proves the truth of the opinions herein 
maintained : — the powers of the circulation 
recover, the pulsatory action commences, a 
return of heat is gradually effected, and with 
it the sensibility of the body ; the lungs then 
commence their action, and at first the air 
expired is cool, then warmer, and at length, 
when the proper degree of sensibility is esta- 
blished, the breath acquires its usual degree 
of heat. 

Animals killed by bleeding or interruption 
of circulation, retain their electricity for some 
time, and hence do not putrefy so soon as those 



102 

who are destroyed by lightning, or diseases 
which exhaust that principle. 

It has been, in the physiology of this system, 
maintained, that the office of the lungs is to 
cool the blood, by exposing it in a large surface 
to the air. If, then, the functional power of a 
part of the lungs be destroyed by disease, 
of whatever nature it may be, the animal will 
no longer be capable of ridding itself of its 
super-abundant heat in the usual manner ; but, 
as the skin has the power of cooling the blood 
by throwing off fluid, and thus producing 
evaporation, the animal will thus be cooled 
for some time. This occurrence takes place 
in what is termed hectic fever : in that disorder 
is seen a gradual accumulation of heat, which, 
on reaching a certain point, terminates in per- 
spiration ; then another accumulation and 
perspiration ; and these returns of accumu- 
lated heat keep pretty regular periods, and, 
when very distinct and palpable, may be con- 
sidered the most certain proof of diseased 
structure or function of the lungs. The ever- 
living hope of consumptives is by reason of 
their experiencing no disturbance in the ex- 
ercise of their intellectual faculties, which 
remain unimpaired as long as the functions 



103 

can keep them in relation with the laws of the 
material world. It is, when this relation be- 
comes imperfect from the weakened state of 
the organic powers, that the patient first be- 
comes aware of danger ; and this feeling is the 
first indication of approaching dissolution. If 
consumptives, who have been very sanguine 
of recovery, and who have suddenly become 
conscious of their dangerous situation, be 
asked why their opinion is thus hastily changed, 
their reply is, that they are now convinced 
of their weakness ; but, if it be thought, and 
pointed out to them, that their weakness can- 
not be so much increased since they were last 
seen, they reply, that it is. The explanation 
of the fact is, that the weakened animal powers 
are now no longer capable of keeping the 
anima or soul in relation with the laws of the 
material world, and vision has therefore become 
imperfect ; sometimes hearing obtuse ; and the 
command over the muscles diminished. If 
asked expressly upon these points, they ac- 
knowledge the truth of the suggestions, but 
beg not to be troubled, as the slightest exer- 
tion is now a painful effort. If consumptives 
do not die suffocated, or in a fainting fit, both 
of which are very common terminations, they 
present, in their last stage, the symptoms em- 



104 

braced in the term Typhus, except the coldness 
of the surface ; and this modification arises 
from the accumulated heat consequent upon 
the destruction of the breathing (or cooling) 
apparatus. 

There is a series of diseases so numerous 
and multiform, that to attempt any thing like 
a separate description of them, would be the 
commencement of an endless task, as the 
symptoms are scarcely ever the same in any 
two individuals. I allude to that immense 
variety of diseases which have their origin in 
derangement of the assimilative functions, and 
which are embraced in the vague meaning 
connected with the terms dyspepsia, indiges- 
tion, chlorosis, scrophula, tympanitis, chorea 
sancti viti, hypochondriasis, &c. &c. In this 
immense class of diseases, some word indica- 
tive of the most prominent feature is gene- 
rally adopted to characterize it, but the origin 
and cause of nearly all may be found in the 
assimilative organs, as is proved by the success 
of the practice adopted by Hamilton, Aber- 
nethy, Philip, and Hall. The descriptions by 
the latter, in his book on the Mimoses, are 
faithful portraits of singular disorders from 
the same origin. The prominent features of 



105 

these diseases — deranged sensibility either 
increased or diminished — the varying heat — 
muscular weakness with irregular muscular 
action — together with the depraved and ap- 
proaching-to-putrefactive state of the secretions 
— may be more clearly comprehended upon 
these views of physiology, than upon any 
rationale which has ever been proposed to ac- 
count for them. 

But to show the extensive connection with 
the phenomena of life, health, and disease, 
which these opinions have, would carry me 
too far, and lead into discussions which will 
be better detached ; inasmuch, as after a close 
observation for a considerable period, I have 
met with no circumstances with which they 
do not accord. We may, therefore, consider 
this system to afford at least as rational an 
explanation of the phenomena of disease, and 
as useful a basis for practical medicine, upon 
which may be founded as scientific a method 
of cure, as any system heretofore advanced. 
And while it leads to a more mild and safe 
practice than that usually adopted, it tends 
also to a more energetic and more ardent course 
in cases of exhaustion, than the system of 
those physiologists who say that life may be 



106 

considered as made up of a given number of 
pulsations, and who teach the husbanding of 
these to be the great secret of prolonging its 
duration. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Examination of the arguments in favour of Material- 
ism — M. Bichat's argument concerning organic and 
animal Sensibility — is sophistical— A physical no^ 
tion of life has insuperable physical objections — 
The reasoning of Materialists upon cause and effect 
— is not sound — Contrary to the assertions of the 
Materialists, the soul may be defined, is evidenced 
by the senses, and has palpable proof in its effects 
—The size of the brain— gives no support to Mate- 
rialism—but is in direct opposition to it — The pro- 
bable use of the brain — Conclusion— is in accordance 
with the possibility of a future life — and that as 
taught by the Christian Scriptures. 

I COME now to resume the discussion of 
the question of Materialism ; in doing which, I 
shall enter into a fair and impartial investiga- 
tion of the most cogent arguments of its sup- 
porters ; afterwards compare it with the opin- 
ions of life herein maintained, and then pro- 
ceed to investigate the rationality of a future 
life. 



108 

The doctrine of Materialism supposes, that a 
certain arrangement of material atoms, com- 
bined with peculiar actions, give, as the result, 
all those phenomena which the varied animal, 
as well as the physical world present to our 
consideration. That the faculties of perceiv- 
ing, retaining, discerning, comparing, com- 
pounding, and abstracting, ideas; the power 
of willing ; and the capacity for passions and 
affections ; are all results of this same arrange- 
ment of material atoms. The advocates of 
this doctrine have given their assent, and fully 
confided their belief in this opinion upon the 
circumstance of this material arrangement being 
essential to the demonstration of those powers 
or faculties. And, an argument of M. Bichat's, 
in which there is a palpable fallacy, has been 
thought to add much support to this opinion : 
I allude to his assertion, " that organic sensi- 
bility may, by disease, be heightened into 
animal sensibility :" and, as organic and vege- 
table sensibility are considered the same, here 
has been supposed a direct proof of animal 
life being nothing more than an exalted state 
of organic or vegetable vitality. The sophism 
here, is in supposing that the excess of any 
given property can constitute another pro- 
perty. Let the property of organic or vege- 



109 

table sensibility be defined in any manner 
whatever, an excess of that property, according 
to the definition, cannot constitute the pro- 
perty of perceiving, any more than an excess 
of sweetness could constitute light, sound, or 
madness. Herein is seen the importance of 
attaching clear and definite ideas to the terms 
Perceptibility and Sensibility, in order to 
comprehend and render intelligible the cir- 
cumstance of disease alluded to by M. Bichat. 
This phenomenon, to which he has so particu- 
larly directed the attention, and on which he 
has founded his doctrine, may be thus intel- 
ligibly understood. The perceptive power of 
the animal has a distinct existence ; the sensi- 
bility of the animal is for the purpose of con- 
veying impressions to that faculty, but it is 
not designed that the organic operations should 
excite the act of perception; these actions 
must, however, necessarily approach very near 
to the accomplishment of that act, in order 
that any further impression coming upon the 
part, may readily excite perception ; now, if 
these organic operations be by disease carried 
too far, they become themselves a cause 
of the act (not the power) of perception ; and 
the beating of the artery, together with heat, 
are the objects perceived by the anima or soul. 



II 

T; ::::> physical notion of life of the M 
rialists, there arise insuperable physical ob- 

tions. First, It is an admitted principle 
in physics, or natural philosophy, that similar 
cav :ould produce similar effects; and, by 

parity of reasoning, that similar effects should 
be the result of similar causes. It follows, 
then, that life in animals similarly situated, 
should result from, and be maintained by, 
equal operations ; but this is contrary to ex- 
perience, since the degTee of organic operations, 
which afford life to the large animals, appear 
incapable of effecting it in the smaller ; while 
Jhe degree of organic operations which afford 
the life of the smaller animals, would render 
the larger incapable of inhabiting the same 
world. Secondly, It is an admitted principle 
in physics, that when causes be removed, effects 
should cease. Accordingly, if the faculties as 
well as the demonstration of the faculties of 
the soul, wore :he result of organization, it 
should necessarily follow, that the destruction 
of the organization by which those facult 

demonstrated, should be accompanied by 
a destruction of those faculties. Thus, if from 
the peculiar structure and function of the e 
and its appendages, in which I conclude a 
portion of the brain, the poicer, as well as the 



Ill 

act of perceiving, retaining, discerning, com- 
pounding, comparing, and abstracting, the ideas 
of light and its modifications of colour and 
form, arose ; then, it should follow, that with 
a destruction of that organization should fade 
all the knowledge (an effect) which had thus 
been obtained by this faculty of organization. 
This is contrary to experience, since the know- 
ledge of light, with its modifications of colour 
and form, may be, and is, retained, &c. when 
the destruction of that organ (the eye) is com- 
plete. The same reasoning is applicable to 
the other senses, and also to the other facul- 
ties. 

Another objection to this doctrine of Mate- 
rialism is, that in disease, more especially in 
putrid fever, the whole organized body may 
become involved in an almost destructive rot- 
tenness, and so much changed as to render all 
the animal phenomena disordered ; yet, on a 
renovation of that organized body by a fresh 
supply of material, the former ideas, opinions, 
powers, and affections, are restored. And 
cases of deranged mind are not wanting, in 
which, after a lapse of many years, there has 
been a return to former associations, affections, 
and habits. And, indeed, the nature of the 



112 

act of recollection, especially when exercised 
upon things which have been many years 
before received and contemplated, appears to 
invalidate the system of Materialism ; and it 
does conclusively prove that Materialism, and 
the notion of a continual wearing away of the 
body, cannot possibly both be true. Because, 
if, after a period, say four, seven, or ten years, 
there be a complete renewal of the organized 
body, and organization be the cause of the 
intellectual faculties, how can the identical 
ideas and feelings, which had been effected 
by the former body, be accomplished by this 
changed structure, as we see daily in the act 
of memory when exercised upon occurrences 
of many years past ? 

Of the moral objections to the doctrine of 
Materialism, it is not my province to treat. 
But the basis of them is, that if the intellectual 
faculties be the result of organization, then 
with disorganization, there must come a com- 
plete destruction of the whole, and it supposes 
physical influence the sole and irresistible mo- 
tive in conduct. 

The believers in, and supporters of, the doc- 
trine of Materialism, have not rested their 



113 

assent, nor grounded their argument upon any 
connection, as cause and effect, discovered 
between organization and those recognised 
faculties of the animal to which I have appro- 
priated the term Soul ; but they reason thus : — 
Our knowledge is confined to cause and effect ; 
we have no knowledge of a power of perceiv- 
ing, until it is recognised by us in the act of 
perceiving ; the act of perceiving is accom- 
plished only by means of organization : there- 
fore the power of perceiving is the result of 
organization. To bring this mode of reasoning 
to the test of experience, let us apply it in 
explaining the property of a telescope. Our 
knowledge is confined to cause and effect ; 
we have no knowledge of the ring of Saturn, 
until it is recognized by us in the act of per- 
ceiving it ; the act of perceiving it is accom- 
plished only by means of a telescope : therefore 
the power of perceiving the ring of Saturn is 
the result of the telescope. But, would any 
one continue to maintain a conclusion so 
glaringly and evidently incorrect ? The tele- 
scope, here, is the mean through which is de- 
monstrated, by the act of perception, both the 
existence of the ring of Saturn in the natural 
creation, and a power of perceiving it in the 
animal. So the act of perception, through the 

i 



114 

organization of the animal* is merely a demon- 
stration of a perceiving power and some of the 
physical laws of the material world ; and no 
proof, or shadow of proof, of the perceiving 
power being the result of organization. The 
same must be evident of the other faculties of 
the soul. 

As this doctrine of Materialism has no theo- 
retical advantage in leading to a knowledge 
of life, so have its accompanying physiological 
notions no practical utility in facilitating an 
understanding of disease, or in leading to an 
easier or more certain method of cure. But 
its advocates have thought, that ■ the evident 
cause of some mental diseases, and the means 
of relieving them, have much weight in support- 
ing their system. In the treatment of diseases 
of the mind, in which this question, so far as 
disease is concerned, is solely at issue, the 
only useful measures are those of removing or 
avoiding the evident causes which destroy, 
interrupt, or derange the exercise of the animal 
faculties; but there is no known means of 
giving or destroying, of increasing or diminish- 
ing, any faculty. The faculties may as clearly 
be understood to have a perfect existence, 
where their exercise is imperfect, deranged, or 



115 

suspended, as the faculty of seeing the ring of 
Saturn may be comprehended to exist in per- 
fection, although the telescope through which 
it had been viewed be destroyed, broken, or 
so much impaired, as to be no longer the means 
of accomplishing the perfect act of perceiving 
that object. The intellectual faculties are al- 
ways so immutable in their nature, that wher- 
ever the organization is perfect through which 
they are exercised, their acts are always perfect : 
thus, if the eye and its appendages be of per- 
fect structure, vision, or the perception of 
light, with its modifications of colour and form, 
will always be correct. So of the act of per- 
ception through other organs. 

Another mode of argument adopted by many 
controversialists, and used also by the sup- 
porters of Materialism, is one not so much 
calculated to give a direct weight to their own 
opinions by an appeal to facts, as to afford an 
indirect support by confounding the doctrine 
of their opponents. In adopting this method, 
the advocates of Materialism assert, that the 
soul, about which men have talked, is a thing 
of mere negative qualities, not evidenced by 
any direct testimony of the senses, nor by any 
indirect proof from its effects. They then 

I 2 



116 

demand, where is proof of the mind of the 
foetus, or of the child just born ? The asser- 
tions concerning the soul, that it is a thing of 
negative qualities, &c, is absolutely incorrect. 
Its qualities are of the most positive and fixed 
nature of any qualities with which we are ac- 
quainted ; they are also evidenced to the indi- 
vidual, both by the direct testimony of all his 
senses, and by most decisive proof in their 
effects, as is seen in the acts of perception, 
memory, volition, and affection. To the ques- 
tion concerning the mind of the foetus, or the 
child just born, there attaches all that am- 
biguity which must result from a vague and 
unsettled usage of the terms Mind and Soul. 
In reply, it must be acceded, that the mind, 
which I have defined to be the acquirements 
of the soul, is not yet formed, but the anima 
or soul has as perfect an existence as in the 
adult, as may be seen by future observation 
of its development. If the existence of all 
things which are unseen, unheard, and un- 
touched, be denied, then must they deny the 
existence of the power of perceiving the ring 
of Saturn to those who have not seen it, of 
hearing the sound called pectoriloquy to those 
who have not heard it, or of feeling the intense 
cold of frozen mercury to those who have never 



117 

touched it. In fact, no power ox faculty is known 
but as recognized in some act. So that while 
the Soul's actual being in the foetus is not 
disproved by those who deny its existence, we 
are free to admit and acknowledge, that the 
Mind is acquired, " that it is infantile in the child, 
manly in the adult, sick and debilitated in 
disease, frenzied or melancholy in the mad-man, 
enfeebled in the decline of life, doting in 
decrepitude, and annihilated in death." Further, 
in the spirit of this method of argument, to 
confound the reasoning of their opponents, they 
tauntingly demand concerning the nature of 
immaterial being ; forgetting that, if a similar 
demand be made of them concerning the nature 
of matter about which they imagine themselves 
so much more conversant, they would be 
unable to define it further than by its qualities, 
which is no more than may be done, and here- 
in has been done, of being called immaterial.* 

Another circumstance upon which they have 
confidently grounded their doctrine, and to 
which they constantly appeal, and which has 
stamped upon their system the greatest appear- 
ance of truth in the eyes of cursory observers, 
is that of great mental display being accom- 
panied by large cerebral development. And 



118 

herein at first view, while the attention is con- 
fined to man, the monkey, and the fox, observa- 
tion may appear strongly to favour their opinion; 
but it is a point by no means so simple and 
easy of conclusion, as may at first be supposed, 
when the animal creation is more extensively 
considered. Of the actual mental acquirements 
of other animals than man, so little is known, 
that to make them a subject of philosophical 
discussion as a matter of amusement, is as 
much as they admit of; but to make them the 
basis of a hasty conclusion, upon the truth of 
which depends the question of all others most 
important, is more than should be allowed 
upon their uncertain nature. It is, however, a 
generally-admitted fact, that man is pre-eminent 
in the animal creation of this world in mental 
acquirement, and he is particularly marked by 
great cerebral development. The monkey 
tribe has been thought to come nearest him in 
mental acquirement, and to have a correspond- 
ing large development of brain. And the fox, 
marked by his sagacity and scheming wiles, 
is found also to have considerable cerebral 
structure. But here the system terminates, and 
the sagacious horse has relatively but little 
brain, and the more sagacious elephant, perhaps 
the most intellectual of all quadrupeds, has 



119 

even less than the ass, or than almost any other 
known animal living in air. 

Perhaps of all the arguments upon Material- 
ism, those founded upon the size of the brain 
will be found, on an extended view, instead of 
supporting it, to invalidate most that system ; 
since the fact is not complete, taken universally, 
that mental development and cerebral develop- 
ment always coincide, as has been already 
shown : and it is particularly opposed, taken in 
an individual species, by the circumstance of 
the relative size of the brain in the child, or 
young animal, being much greater than in the 
adult. Here mental development is certainly 
least, where cerebral development is greatest. 
The assertion therefore of a writer on organiza- 
tion (Sir C. Morgan), that the diminished 
powers of thought in old age, is attributable 
to the diminished size of the brain, is not un- 
questionable as he has supposed. 

The structure, functions, and economy of the 
brain appear to me easiest understood, and to 
have the most useful tendency in explaining 
the phenomena of life and disease, by regard- 
ing it as a glandular organ destined for the 
immediate secretion of electric fluid from the 



120 

blood after the food has been digested and 
elaborated by the assimilative functions. This 
opinion of its nature and office is supported by 
its glandular appearance, by its being supplied 
like glands by a much greater quantity of blood 
than can be supposed necessary for its support 
(about one fifth of the whole circulating fluid), 
and by the tortuous dispensation of its vessels 
before entering its substance. Viewing it thus, 
in connexion with the assimilative functions, 
we can more readily comprehend those cere- 
bral disturbances which we see hourly arise 
from disturbance of the digestive organs, than 
by any hypothesis at present received. On 
the admission of this opinion, its varied size 
becomes perfectly intelligible, whether regarded 
in the individual species, or in the animal 
creation generally, as I shall proceed to show. 

First, let us treat of man in the general order 
of animal beings; and, afterwards, of him in his 
individual species. He has a greater relative 
proportion of brain than any animal of his size, 
because he requires greater elaboration of 
electric fluid. The two great properties of 
animal matter dependent upon this fluid for 
their support, are sensibility and muscular 
contractility. The required quantity of electric 



121 

fluid for the support of the first property in an 
individual, is determined by the number of 
sentient organs, by the size of the animal, and 
by the nature of the medium in which it is 
destined to live : the quantity of electric fluid 
required for the support of the second property, 
will be determined by the degree of muscular 
contractility required by the animal. Man, 
having as many sentient organs as any being 
we are acquainted with, and living also in the 
rare medium of air, will have occasion, therefore, 
for as great a supply of electric fluid to support 
his sensibility, as any animal of his size. But 
he differs from all other animals in having an 
erect form, to the support of which is required 
amazing muscular exertion. The act of standing 
in quadrupeds, is nearly mechanical, or accord- 
to the laws of inert matter ; but the erect 
attitude of man, from the mechanical construc- 
tion of his skeleton, could only be effected by 
a constant exertion of muscular action. Hence 
we see, that, without being capable of exerting 
any great physical force, compared with many 
other animals of his size, he is relatively the 
most muscular being in the serial creation ; 
especially in the form of his legs, thighs, 
buttocks, and loins. In the female of his species, 
this relative development of muscle in the legs, 



122 

thighs, &c, is further increased, to enable her 
to support the incumbent weight of her uterus 
when gravid. The loss of physical power in 
maintaining an erect position, may be easily 
conceived, when the attention is directed to 
the circumstances, that in the upright, position, 
one more powerful man can restrain another, 
but in the recumbent position, it requires 
several persons to restrain another, because 
that muscular action which had been required 
to keep the body erect, is, in the recumbent 
position, left free for resistance ; hence those 
seemingly wonderful muscular exertions, which 
are seen in epilepsy, mania, intoxication, and 
in rows, where one is thrown down and exerts 
himself on the earth. In taking a captive, he 
should always be kept upon his legs. To the 
support of this muscular exertion, so necessary 
to the erect form, a much greater supply of 
electric fluid will be required, than in the prone 
position of quadrupeds. All erect animals will 
therefore require a greater development of the 
organs by which that fluid is elaborated and 
secreted, than other living beings : hence the 
abdominal development of man, is relatively 
greater than any other omnivorous animal, and 
his cerebral development relatively larger than 
any other living being of his size. The child, 



123 

from its size, having occasion for a relatively 
greater quantity of electric fluid to support its 
sensibility than the adult, will have still greater 
relative abdominal and cerebral development. 
The increasing size of the animal from infancy 
to manhood, is accompanied with a gradual 
diminution of abdominal and cerebral develop- 
ment ; hence in man as a species, the greatest 
relative cerebral development is in the smallest 
animal. Dwarfs, as a general rule, are large- 
headed. And I believe, there is never much 
muscular development accompanying the 
idiotic head. 

The monkey tribe are quadruped, but their 
great cerebral development may entitle them 
to a separate consideration ; they are very agile, 
and differ from other quadrupeds in being able 
to maintain for a considerable period an erect po- 
sition, and of performing many actions with their 
then upper extremities, imitative of man. Their 
great muscular power, and their diminished 
size compared with man, will account for their 
great cerebral development. Throughout the 
whole of the ape tribe, the relative size of the 
brain is greatest in the smallest animal, and is 
least of all in the great baboon. An exception 
to this rule is found in monkies having prehen- 



124 

sile tails ; to this power is required a consider- 
able super-addition of muscular energy, and 
hence they surpass their fellows in largeness 
of brain, and the smaller of these animals equal 
man. 

The prone position of quadrupeds, and the 
mechanical manner in which they are sustained 
upon four supports, renders necessary to them 
a much less muscular power than is required 
by man ; and nearly the whole of their muscular 
energy may be used in physical force, very 
little being required to sustain their position : 
they have therefore, equal or superior strength 
with much less cerebral development than man. 
Throughout this order of animals, the relative 
size of the brain by no means corresponds with 
the apparent intellect ; but, as a general rule, 
with few exceptions which may be easily 
explained, the relative size of the brain is 
greatest in the smallest, and least in the largest; 
being largest in the little field-mouse (equalling 
man), and gradually diminishing through, the 
increasing size of quadrupeds, up to the largest. 
I know not whether there be in existence the 
skull of a mammoth, but if there be, I will venture 
to assert, that it has less relative capacity for 
brain than any other air-breathing quadruped. 



125 

The exceptions to this general rule in quad- 
rupeds as an order, are found in animals of an 
inactive nature, as the hog and ox. The horse 
is also an exception ; he, although strong and 
swift, is incapable of long-continued muscular 
exertion. In any species of quadruped, the 
rule is perfect. The ass, compared with the 
horse, has double or treble the relative propor- 
tion of brain, yet shews no sign of superior 
intellect : and the relative proportion of brain 
in the calf, is three or four times as much as in 
the full-grown ox. Small mice have relatively 
twice as much brain as rats, and the rabbit has 
nearly twice as much as the hare. The scull 
of that well-known horse Eclipse, had an 
unusual capacity for brain, and he presented, 
when living, a most unusual example of muscular 
development; but I am not aware that he 
evinced any peculiar superiority of intellect to 
other horses. 

In birds, the same thing may be observed, 
the relative size of the brain being greatest in 
the smallest animals ; and in some very small 
birds, it does equal and far surpass in relative 
proportion, the brain of man. The little hum- 
ming bird, when stripped of its feathers, is 
nearly all head. An exception to this rule 



126 

presents in aquatic birds ; the relative propor- 
tion of brain being in them much less than in 
land-birds of the same size, as for instance, in 
the duck and the cock, the eagle and the goose ; 
this is by reason of aquatic birds having 
occasion for much less muscular action in loco- 
motion than land-animals, they have conse- 
quently less demand for electric secretion, and 
the organ destined for that purpose will 
necessarily be smaller. The mechanical position 
of these bipeds is very different from that of 
man, the trunk being nearly equipoised upon 
two supports, requires but little muscular 
power to preserve its balance, compared with 
that required for the peculiar construction of 
the human skeleton. 

Fishes and reptiles have even much less 
cerebral development than quadrupeds. Here 
must be recalled to mind the low degree of 
sensibility required by animals dwelling in the 
dense medium of water, and the reason of their 
low degree of cerebral development will then 
be clear enough. Among amphibious animals, 
those, whose more natural element is the dense 
medium of water, have least cerebral develop- 
ment ; the brain of the turtle is therefore 
relatively smaller than that of the tortoise. In 



127 

these animals, with few exceptions, the greatest 
cerebral development is in the smallest creatures. 

Cerebral development, therefore, instead of 
being in proportion to mental development, is 
always in proportion to the required quantity 
or degree of sensibility and muscular contrac- 
tility, and the brain may be as much and as 
clearly considered a physical organ, as the liver, 
spleen, or stomach : but it keeps no proportion 
with the intellect of the animal, and therefore 
is not a valid argument to the support of 
Materialism. 

Seeing, then, that the doctrine of Materialism 
is totally incompetent to shew that percepti- 
bility and the other animal faculties depend 
upon and arise from organization — that M. 
Bichat's hypothesis of animal and organic 
sensibility is sophistical — that the doctrine, 
with its accompanying physiology, has too 
many discrepancies to afford a rational basis 
for practical medicine — that the mind is better 
understood in opposition to that doctrine — that 
the anima or soul may, contrary to the opinion 
of the supporters of that doctrine, be defined, 
and that as clearly as any other thing in exist- 
ence—that the opinions advanced concerning 



128 

the brain do give no support, but on the con- 
trary, are in direct opposition, to the doctrine— * 
lean hardly be deemed hasty in concluding, that 
that doctrine cannot be true upon the reasons 
hitherto advanced by its intelligent supporters. 

Seeing also, that, by assuming the independ- 
ent existence of certain faculties, to which, when 
considered collectively, may be appropriated 
the term anima or soul, and, by regarding the 
body as the mere machine or instrument by 
which such faculties are brought into relation, 
or within the influence of the laws of the 
material world, the whole operations, structure, 
and phenomena of the animal, become clear and 
intelligible, not incumbered and opposed by 
embarrassing discrepancies, but keeping an 
intelligible uniformity throughout all animal 
nature as far as it is known; and, that such views 
afford a scientific basis for practical medicine, 
at once simple and useful, this doctrine may, 
and ought, philosophically, and setting aside 
moral and religious considerations, to supersede 
and take place of any other not possessing 
these advantages. 

Life, then, or that state of existence which 
man possesses in common with his fellow- 



129 

inhabitants of this world of matter, being best 
comprehended by regarding it as constituted 
of a relation between certain intellectual facul- 
ties or soul, and the physical laws of this ma- 
terial abode, it follows, as a natural conse- 
quence, that we regard Death as a loss or 
destruction of such relation, without any admis- 
sion of the destruction of those faculties of 
which our idea of soul is formed. It then 
becomes a subject of inquiry, both important 
and interesting, whether certain opinions or 
notions among mankind of a future state of 
being, be compatible, or at direct variance, 
with our physical knowledge. This is soon 
determined without argument, as it carries 
with it immediate reasonable assent, that cer- 
tain faculties which here are placed in relation 
with the laws of a material world, may, or can 
hereafter, be again placed in relation with the 
laws of some other (it is to be hoped happy) 
abode, and that by the mediate agency of a 
body. But these philosophical views by no 
means determine that such will be the case. 
Philosophically, therefore, the thing is possi- 
ble, but without any assurance, certainty, or 
reasonable ground for believing or disbelieving 
that it will or will not be re-instated in relation 
with the laws of another world. Nor do I know 

K 



130 

of any physical reasons which do in any man- 
ner support or oppose either view, or indeed, 
which have any connection with the matter. 
Any one, therefore, having a belief in a future 
state of existence, unless he perceives some 
connection which I do not, must ground such 
belief on some other support than his physio- 
logical knowledge, which, while it demonstrates 
that such an existence may be, goes not one 
step further to prove that it will be. 

Many attempts have been made by philoso- 
phers in different ages, to prove the undying- 
ness or immortality of the soul. The natural 
world, however, affords no facts, experience 
no precepts, profane history no record, and 
philosophy no reasons, to support such con- 
clusion. So, that, wherever a belief in future 
existence has been warrantably held by man- 
kind, it has not been upon any rational system 
framed out of philosophy, but solely upon the 
assurance of some individual, upon whose un- 
erring veracity, and unquestionable authority, 
they have had sufficient confidence to rely ; 
and this confidence in such person has been 
called Faith ; and whoever wishes to show 
reasonable grounds for his faith, must do it by 
an appeal to, and proof of, the character and 



131 

authority of the individual in whom is his 
faith. Yet the reasonableness of his belief is 
much strengthened by showing its accordance 
with the economy of nature. By nature, I 
mean the works of God. 

To conclude : there is between this system 
of physiology and the doctrine of Christianity, 
so far as regards a future life, a remarkable and 
beautiful accordance; which, while it affords 
a reflective brightness of truth upon both sys- 
tems, breaks down and destroys that barrier 
which has hitherto existed between science 
and religion. And the doctrine of a resurrec- 
tion, and that strictly and literally as taught 
by Jesus the Christ and Paul his apostle, 
may now as reasonably be held in accordance 
with the laws of science, and maintained by 
genuine and unsophisticated reasoning, as any 
opinion I know of. And it is remarkable 
that the doctrine of the resurrection, as taught 
by Christ and his apostle, is the only doctrine 
of the resurrection which can be reasonably 
and philosophically maintained. 

Philosophy is capable of showing, and it has 
been herein shown, that a future state of ex- 
istence may be — Jesus the Christ has declared 

k 2 



that it will be — and Paul, his apostle, has de- 
clared how it will be, when in speaking of the 
resurrection, and seeing the difficulties by which 
it might be surrounded in the minds of ob- 
servant and reasoning men, he anticipated the 
question which probably did then, and has 
since, so much puzzled philosophers with their 
erroneous system of physiology to answer : 
"Some men/' observes he, "will say, how 
are the dead raised up, and with what body 
do they come ?" This is evidently in allusion 
to the organic destruction of the animal, but 
he replies, " Thou sowest not the body which 
shall be;" he then indulges in a figure of 
speech, and resumes thus, " but God giveth 
it (the person, the anima or soul), a body as 
it pleaseth Him." 



CHAPTER X. 



To admit a Soul in all living creatures is not un~ 
scriptural — Comparison of the brute and human 
Soul — wherein they differ — Language — acquired 
before knowledge — uses of this — The act of abstract- 
ing, explained-r—is essential to religious knowledge — ■ 
Why religion cannot be acquired by brutes — On the 
minds of savages — Conclusion. 

In the Scriptures, mention is made of " the 
spirit of man which ascendeth upwards, and 
the spirit of beasts which goeth downwards 
to the earth." The phrase also occurs, " in 
whose hands is the soul of every living thing." 
Beside which, there are several instances where 
the term Soul might be applied in speaking of 
other creatures than man, in which the trans- 
lators have substituted the word Life : so 
that the admission of an Anima throughout the 
whole living world is not more philosophical 
than scriptural. But, as so much greater value 
is set upon the soul of the human race than 
upon the brute kingdom, both in man's esti^ 



134 

mation (in which I am willing to admit he 
might be misled by pride and an undue self- 
consequence), and also by God, as is believed 
by those who admit a revelation from Him, 
it becomes a matter of interest to inquire 
wherein the soul of the one differs from the 
soul of the other, and to seek whether that 
vast difference does exist between them which 
has been generally supposed; and whether 
those views which religion unfolds of the 
designs of God towards man, and his hopes 
of a future existence, are consistent with phi- 
losophical truth, and whether philosophically 
they are peculiarly his. 

The powers of perceiving, retaining, com- 
paring, and discerning the nature and qualities 
of physical bodies, are quite equal, if not supe- 
rior, in the brute kingdom. The eye of the hawk, 
pigeon, cat, spider, trout, and, indeed, of most 
brute animals, is quite equal in quickness and 
power to the eye of the human race. The sense 
of, and discernment by, smell, in flies, birds, 
some dogs, and probably in many other animals, 
is astonishingly beyond that faculty in man. 
The senses also of hearing, touch, and taste, 
we have no reason to consider in them inferior 
to man. Their power of retaining is, in many 



135 

instances, strongly exemplified in the remem- 
brance of a master by dogs, where his memory 
had faded from his human friends ; and the 
memory of particular spots for building and 
breeding by birds and fishes, are striking ex- 
amples of this faculty in the brute kingdom. 
To a certain degree of physical compounding, 
the brute creation are also equal, as in the 
dancing of dogs, horses, &c. The acts of voli- 
tion are also as perfect in them as in man. 
They afford also proof of their capacity for 
sensual passion, and many instances of the 
strongest affection for a sensible object, so 
strong indeed, as to have their death caused 
by its removal. But in the highest of the 
intellectual faculties, I mean the faculty of 
abstracting, they appear totally deficient ; it 
has no existence in any other animal than man, 
and hence, from the exercise of this faculty in 
him, may be traced all his intellectual supe- 
riority ; and this faculty gives him also a ca- 
pacity for religion and its hopes. No one has 
ever been able to define the exact line between 
reason and instinct, nor does there in fact exist 
any such distinction in nature : all animals reason, 
but not equally, and the human race, by the 
super-addition of a faculty above other animals, 
are enabled to reason so considerably beyond all 



136 

others, as to render by comparison the brute 
powers of reasoning hardly worthy of the name. 

Man, before the exercise of his higher faculty 
of abstracting, differs nothing in his reasoning 
from the brute creation ; the infant in discern- 
ing pleasure from pain, bitters from sweets, 
and in discriminating its parent, does not at 
all excel the faculties of the brute world ; nor 
in its cries and smiles does it at all surpass the 
cries and playfulness of other animals, as signs 
of its pleasures and pains. 

language, according to the opinion of Mr. 
Locke, originated, and the nature of the thing 
proves that it must have originated, upon the 
basis of abstraction, because, with the excep- 
tion of proper names, and a few other terms 
indicative of the commonest actions of life, 
nearly all terms in language are but signs of 
abstract ideas. Yet before the exercise of the 
faculty of abstracting, we see children taught 
to articulate words, and to comprehend them 
as signs or representations of things : and at 
a later period, before the exercise of the faculty 
of abstracting commences, we may see the 
extended vocabulary of preceding ages (the 
result of centuries of abstractions) learned by 



137 

rote. This education of words without know- 
ledge is yet highly useful, and answers three 
important ends : First, it becomes an index 
and incitement to actual knowledge : Secondly, 
it facilitates an application of terms to know- 
ledge when afterwards acquired by abstraction ; 
and, Thirdly, it keeps an uniformity of language, 
by the same terms being used to denote the 
same abstract ideas when acquired. It is 
difficult to say at what age the faculty of 
abstracting commences, but I do not think it 
is often exercised in any great degree before the 
age of fourteen (I am now speaking vaguely) ; 
but, until it does commence, however much the 
human subject may differ from the brute crea- 
tion in form, or in its superior power of execu- 
ting a device, or in its application of sounds as 
images or signs of things (a result of education), 
it has no superiority of actual intellectual 
knowledge. It may have all the outward 
figure, actions, and denotements of knowledge, 
without its existence ; as the player may have 
all the signs, actions, and exterior workings of 
jealousy, without the inward feeling or actual 
knowledge of that passion. This is one of the 
greatest evils of juvenile education, that it gives 
the appearance of knowledge without the spirit 
of it, and hence the almost universal appear- 



138 

ance of knowledge in this highly-educated 
age. 

In the act of abstracting, the soul contem- 
plates a quality away from the being in which 
it exists ; and, having contemplated the same 
quality away from several beings in which it 
had existed, the soul regards that quality in a 
general view : hence it becomes a general 
abstracted idea, and is indicated by one general 
term as white, hard, fluid, &c. So may be 
contemplated, abstractedly from the object in 
which it had existed, goodness, beauty, power, 
truth, &c. &c. 

Where the faculty of abstracting has no 
existence (as in brutes), or where it is not 
exercised (as in children), those qualities can 
only be contemplated in their union with the 
being in which they are perceived, and conse- 
quently the structure of their minds is nearly 
similar, although the child by the acquirement 
of a language has seemingly so great a supe- 
riority. The brute, being incapable of general 
abstractions, can never have terms to indicate 
abstractions ; and the terms which the child has 
acquired are not signs to him of general 
abstractions, but merely signs of sensible 



139 

qualities ; although, afterwards, if he come to 
abstract, those terms will then be used by him as 
signs of his abstractions. 

The first point of Religion is the comprehen- 
sion, admission, and belief of the existence of 
God. This is a knowledge which cannot be 
attained by means of those faculties which are 
common to the brute creation as well as man. 
It is upon sensible objects only, their faculties 
can be exercised ; but God being immaterial, 
and therefore not subject to sense, cannot be 
comprehended, perceived, or attained to by 
them. Nor is He comprehended, perceived, 
or attained to by man, although his name may 
be used, and his attributes familiarly discoursed 
of by man, until the higher faculty of abstracting 
comes to be exercised. Until then, His name, 
and the name of his attributes, are mere signs, 
acquired by rote, of things not comprehended, 
in the same manner as a child uses the term 
world, without any definite idea of its form, 
structure, size, or any of the qualities which 
make up the definite idea connected with that 
word : in the same way, children will talk of 
death, angels, heaven, &c. &c, without any 
definite ideas. But when the soul of man comes 
to exercise its faculty of abstracting, then it 



140 

attains to the comprehension of the existence 
of Power, independent of, or away from Matter, 
and may be led to the admission or belief of the 
actual existence of such independent or distinct 
power. So an idea of justness may be acquired 
abstractedly from any being in whom we have 
traced some faint lines of it. And if the soul 
now, by an act of compounding, considers these 
two qualities in their fullest and most perfect 
existence as forming attributes of one being, we 
come to a limited conception of God. By 
adding to these ideas the abstract ideas of truth, 
mercy, goodness, love, omniscience, omni- 
presence, and eternal existence, we come to a 
compound conception, of which the word God 
is the sign in language. But of a full, extended, 
and perfect knowledge of God, it cannot enter 
into the heart of man to conceive. This con- 
ception of God is not necessarily connected 
with a belief in his actual existence, for the 
soul may by abstraction attain to the concep- 
tion of all these qualities or attributes, and yet 
perceive no just reason for believing in their 
actual existence, any more than an abstract 
conception of a less perfect character would 
necessarily enforce a belief in its actual exist- 
ence. So that, although the power of abstract- 
ing is essential to a conception and philosophical 



141 

belief of God, and animals that have it not can- 
not consequently attain to that knowledge, yet 
it does not follow, that all who possess a faculty 
of abstracting must necessarily conceive of and 
believe in Him. 

The nature of Religion,presupposing a Supreme 
Being, holds out also a promise of future exist- 
ence. Of this Supreme Being, as distinct from 
matter, I have already shown that brute 
animals, because they abstract not, cannot 
conceive ; and upon the same ground may be 
argued their inability even to conceive of a 
future renewal of their being. They are, in fact, 
entirely confined to sensual knowledge, and 
their reasoning goes no further than upon the 
immediate objects of sense, their wanting of the 
power of abstracting bounding their knowledge. 
Nor are the brute creation adapted for a com- 
pliance with the dictates of religion, which not 
only inculcates continually a restraint of sensual 
conduct, but often imposes a behaviour 
diametrically opposed to sensual interest ; and 
it enforces, above all other commands, an 
affectionate obedience and unswerving servitude 
to the Supreme Will, things of which the brute 
faculties cannot even conceive. Now, if from 
the highest instance of intellectual culture in 



142 

man, be taken away from him that knowledge 
which had been acquired by the abstractions 
of preceding generations, of which the signs 
were communicated to him from the parent 
generation by language ; and also those abstrac- 
tions which he himself has made ; and also his 
combinations or compoundings of abstracted 
ideas ; you reduce him at once to the low ebb 
of brute reasoning, and cut off from him all the 
attainments which dignify his nature, as 
language, imagination, verbal and intellectual 
composition, intellectual affection, science, and 
religion. 

Where the intellectual acquirements of the 
parent generation of the human race are very 
limited, there is accompanying a correspondent 
poverty of language, and the vocabulary of these 
people is little more than a collection of proper 
names with a few terms indicative of the com- 
monest actions of life. Here the offspring 
generation receive not even the lingual signs of 
knowledge from the parent, and consequently 
go on from generation to generation in an 
ignorance very little inferior to the brute part 
of the creation, as may be seen in the untutored 
natives of Africa, and the savages of other parts. 
Among these people, as among the brute world, 



143 

may often be seen considerable dexterity in art, 
and nearly always great natural powers of sense ; 
but of science and intellectual acquirement 
there are found but very faint traces. This is 
not from the faculty of abstracting being 
defective in these men, but from its remaining 
unexercised. If language be introduced among 
these at present ignorant and barbarous people, 
by another generation of mankind, who will 
also explain the meaning of the terms comprised 
in that language, then these hitherto apparently 
brutal creatures, by exercising their dormant 
faculty of abstracting, attain to as clear and 
perfect knowledge of the sciences and of 
religion, and emerge into characters as highly 
intellectual as the benevolent generation who 
took the first step towards dignifying their 
nature. In this instance, as I have before 
observed, language is not knowledge, but 
merely an index or light towards it. 

There does appear then, a vast difference 
between the anima or soul of man, and the 
anima or soul of brutes, and it becomes 
evident, that the soul of man is naturally and 
philosophically and peculiarly adapted for those 
higher contemplations and sublime hopes 
which Religion upholds to his race. And with- 



144 

out entering into the designs of God towards 
the other parts of the living creation, upon 
which philosophy and revealed knowledge 
afford so little light, both teaching merely that 
He is not unmindful of them, it behoves us 
gratefully to receive, studiously to contemplate, 
and heartily to - comply with those dictates 
which are essential to the advancement of His 
gracious designs towards us. 



FINIS, 



T. C. Hansard, Paternoster-row Press* 



fa 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 . 



^ <T «*.: 



r «: 



c cvc.cc 

< C ccc 

itr c c <- - < ■■ 






C ccr«c;< 



<S ■ CC 



<.<^"C<^'C0d^--' c<1(r < 



<ic < ■-<- ' 

*TCC C 
C 

CC '■ 5 

, C1C C - 



<r <c**i*C <3c 



^<rc c_<:_. c 






<:c c^«c 



latr 7 ' <c os?£< 






r^c^ coc 

mm -~, s . ^ -*■ 



;T~< <c CCp ? - **CZZ : * r,s ^ ><*C3 - -" 

~ <<c <:c <^CL~ c<sC^ c«*CLc « < < 

f3- < ■< <A2s< <**r: <' <' 
2 < <^ <S CT cr*C 

«c< cc eg «cr c«r|cc 

Cjt r<r <<Z 

3Cj<3 < c cc <£t < <^~ <r ^accc.- owt. < 

3^p c cc ~cc <T7<: <£< «-<:<<y ' C 






4CXc: -«^i3Tc C^ CCC^l ^<3^"< 

= '"- -<c< <z cxxc<rc (ccc< c - 
Y^^r^ .^^^^ 'occic-^ ^<f<^j^ £ 5^ : ;/ 






C3^^ 



-^ c re 



Sfe^- c€3c^: e-c«jcv fr ?c j-o:/ 
^rc- c<r: ^<-^ <& ^o 

- r^ »v r^ir <rr <C«^ ^-' r cc 



< K 

" <ic: «o c c 

; c 

-ccc^vc €2 ; cccr"c:c^ 
-vec; r <ccxjc:xc ; 

cct^«::<rcc<r:< <: c ^ 

^cc?x:<xc<jc ■< <- s 55; 

r^oc<xc<jc c:o c ex 

<^ c cc 

^^;<3C ««5><i< <c «: -c ^ 

^QjOcTccr ;;c; ^ c cc c< 



rcc <: : ^T" c^ 
rcc c <: c 



<38Tcc< ^ -« 

rrc< c c «cr 



cc cc 
~ cr< i 

: cc: c3 « ■ 

_<c^< c >5^ cc cc <r; 



- <:« c <c 
_ c ^c 

cc: ^ 

: c c:c 1 

??cc cc « 

re; <x'^ < 

-<r cfc cc^^ ' 

cfCC CCc <_, 

GCC crc ' 



Or 
<< 

•-.<■ cr 

^c 
« C< 

^< < i 



d c 







iBT/" 


c ■ 




c < 


<^c<rc 


<:.« 


c 


«< 


40CJCC 


<i< 




c 


*oircc 


<: < « 




c < 


OiCc5C 



<3T 



<r c c 





















^/ celiac. C «£ 

— *— ere <<sc<^<- 5 
^8c ^ ^^^5^^ 









"S33 C 



<S3C*^ 



• exotic c«^-tr <c " 
ccit:<4c5c <<: c<^ 









<-c <<3C3£< ' 



: o c^ <§r«cr <r c c <r ^r" <^ 

Z c.^<rr<i -4CT <T <^ c ^ ' ? ' <ZZ' r <Z > 



_T <$ZC<zl *cr ' <zr <Z?C <■ rrfr.^ r< 
c;<: <r <zr ^CZjtCM^ ,<<: <T <. ^ 






r<cr <^< 









